Sequence Learning

顺序学习

基本信息

批准号：
7126201
负责人：
WALTER T HERBRANSON
金额：
$ 18.48万
依托单位：
WHITMAN COLLEGE
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2006
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2006-09-22 至 2010-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Most animals are required to interact with a complex environment. That is, a successful individual must do more than passively observe regularities in the natural world. Foraging, hunting, mating, escape from predators, and a host of other survival-related behaviors require the skillful execution of complicated sequences of actions. In these situations, it is the sequence of actions, and not the component actions themselves that are of particular interest. The proposed research is part of a long-term effort to investigate how animals learn and execute complex sequences of behaviors. Seven experiments in this proposal will develop and elaborate on a pigeon version of a widely used Serial Response Time task, originally developed in the context of human neuropsychology research. The basic procedure requires pigeons to peck a series of illuminated keys that occur according to a predictable pattern, and sequence learning is indicated by faster average response times as they gain experience executing the sequence. Each of the proposed experiments isolates a different component of sequence learning and attempts to specify the range of conditions under which effective sequence learning occurs. These experiments will identify the kinds of complex sequences that pigeons can readily learn and execute, and develop a new empirical procedure that connects sequence learning with the extensive literature on spatial attention and visual categorization. By developing a nonhuman animal version of a procedure that is widely used in neuropsychology, the project will open up the possibility of research into the biological basis of sequence learning. Such an animal model would prove particularly valuable in the investigation of several neurological disorders such as temporal lobe amnesia and Parkinson's disease.

描述（由申请人提供）：大多数动物都需要与复杂的环境互动。也就是说，一个成功的个人必须做的不仅仅是被动地观察自然世界的规律。觅食、狩猎、交配、逃离捕食者以及许多其他与生存相关的行为都需要熟练地执行复杂的动作序列。在这些情况下，特别感兴趣的是操作的顺序，而不是组件操作本身。拟议的研究是研究动物如何学习和执行复杂行为序列的长期努力的一部分。该提案中的七个实验将开发和详细阐述广泛使用的串行响应时间任务的鸽子版本，该任务最初是在人类神经心理学研究的背景下开发的。基本程序要求鸽子啄一系列按照可预测模式发生的发光键，随着它们获得执行序列的经验，序列学习的平均响应时间更快。所提出的每个实验都隔离了序列学习的不同组成部分，并试图指定有效序列学习发生的条件范围。这些实验将确定鸽子可以轻松学习和执行的复杂序列类型，并开发一种新的经验程序，将序列学习与有关空间注意力和视觉分类的大量文献联系起来。通过开发神经心理学中广泛使用的非人类动物版本的程序，该项目将为研究序列学习的生物学基础开辟可能性。这种动物模型在研究几种神经系统疾病（例如颞叶健忘症和帕金森病）方面特别有价值。