The Evolution of Chunks in Sequence Learning

Tosatto, Laure; Fagot, Joël; Németh, Dezső; Rey, Arnaud

doi:10.1111/cogs.13124

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In this study, we found that the same mechanisms found in baboons were present in humans, with a significant predominance of recombinations over concatenations. As it was suggested for baboons (Tosatto et al, 2022), the presence of concatenations suggests that when two chunks are stable, they could be concatenated more easily into one. On the other hand, recombinations would be a way to make the chunking pattern evolve by testing a better combination of chunks, both easier to perform from a motor point of view and easier to integrate in memory.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…To study the evolution of the chunking pattern of the sequence, we adopted the same method as the one previously used for baboons (Tosatto et al, 2022). For each participant, the 1,000 trials were divided into 10 blocks of 100 trials.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The apparatus, task, and stimuli were identical to the one used in Tosatto et al (2022) in baboons. The experiment was controlled by E-prime (Version 2.0, Psychology Software Tools, Pittsburgh, PA) and ran on an HP ProBook 650 G1 computer connected to a 32-inch Iiyama touch screen.…”

Section: Apparatus and Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To get a general index of sequence learning in both species throughout the repeated 1,000 trials, we computed on each trial the average of the nine RTs collected on each of the nine positions of the sequence. This evolution of mean RTs for all participants and for each species is presented in Figure 2 (the baboon data are from Tosatto et al, 2022). A repeated measures ANOVA with Block (1-10) as a within-factor and species (human vs. baboon) as a between-factor was computed on these mean RTs for baboons and humans.…”

Section: Sequence Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The dynamics of chunking in humans (Homo sapiens) and Guinea baboons (Papio papio).

Tosatto¹,

Fagot²,

Rey³

2023

Journal of Comparative Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chunking is an important cognitive process allowing the compression of information in short-term memory. The aim of this study is to compare the dynamics of chunking during the learning of a visuomotor sequence in humans (Homo sapiens) and Guinea baboons (Papio papio). We duplicated in humans an experimental paradigm that has been used previously in baboons. On each trial, human participants had to point to a moving target on a touch screen. The experiment involved the repetition of the same sequence of nine items over a 1,000 trials. To reproduce as much as possible the conditions under which baboons performed the task, human participants were tested at their own pace. Results revealed that baboons and humans shared similar chunking dynamics: In both species, the sequence was initially parsed into small chunks that became longer and fewer with practice through two reorganization mechanisms (recombinations and concatenations). Differences were also observed regarding the global decrease in response times that was faster and more pronounced in humans compared with baboons. Analyses of these similarities and differences provide new empirical evidence for understanding the general properties of chunking mechanisms in sequence learning and its evolution across species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Apparatus and Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sequence Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The dynamics of chunking in humans (Homo sapiens) and Guinea baboons (Papio papio).

Tosatto¹,

Fagot²,

Rey³

2023

Journal of Comparative Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In these offline tasks, participants are first exposed to a visual or auditory familiarization stream comprising a set of regularities, followed by an offline test phase (e.g., judgement of familiarity on sequences that were or were not presented during the familiarization phase [ 18 – 20 ], or reaction time measures to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli, [ 21 , 22 ]). Alternative experimental paradigms have also been developed to assess learning throughout the task by using online measures, such as recording serial RTs in serial response time tasks [ 23 – 25 ], in target detection tasks [ 26 , 27 ], or in a self-paced familiarization task [ 28 ]. These approaches are useful to understand the learning trajectories of individuals and the learning dynamics of regularity extraction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting non-adjacent dependencies is the exception rather than the rule

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Statistical learning refers to our sensitivity to the distributional properties of our environment. Humans have been shown to readily detect the dependency relationship of events that occur adjacently in a stream of stimuli but processing non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) appears more challenging. In the present study, we tested the ability of human participants to detect NADs in a new Hebb-naming task that has been proposed recently to study regularity detection in a noisy environment. In three experiments, we found that most participants did not manage to extract NADs. These results suggest that the ability to learn NADs in noise is the exception rather than the rule. They provide new information about the limits of statistical learning mechanisms.

show abstract

Chunking as a function of sequence length

Tosatto,

Fagot,

Nemeth

et al. 2024

Anim Cogn

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chunking mechanisms are central to several cognitive processes. During the acquisition of visuo-motor sequences, it is commonly reported that these sequences are segmented into chunks leading to more fluid, rapid, and accurate performances. The question of a chunk’s storage capacity has been often investigated but little is known about the dynamics of chunk size evolution relative to sequence length. In two experiments, we studied the dynamics and the evolution of a sequence’s chunking pattern as a function of sequence length in a non-human primate species (Guinea baboons, Papio papio). Using an operant conditioning device, baboons had to point on a touch screen to a moving target. In Experiment 1, they had to produce repeatedly the same sequence of 4 movements during 2000 trials. In Experiment 2, the sequence was composed of 5 movements and was repeated 4000 times. For both lengths, baboons initially produced small chunks that became fewer and longer with practice. Moreover, the dynamics and the evolution of the chunking pattern varied as a function of sequence length. Finally, with extended practice (i.e., more than 2000 trials), we observed that the mean chunk size reached a plateau indicating that there are fundamental limits to chunking processes that also depend on sequence length. These data therefore provide new empirical evidence for understanding the general properties of chunking mechanisms in sequence learning.

show abstract

The Evolution of Chunks in Sequence Learning

Cited by 17 publications

References 44 publications

The dynamics of chunking in humans (Homo sapiens) and Guinea baboons (Papio papio).

The dynamics of chunking in humans (Homo sapiens) and Guinea baboons (Papio papio).

Detecting non-adjacent dependencies is the exception rather than the rule

Chunking as a function of sequence length

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About