Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： The dominant paradigm for learning in China today is “gradual learning”, that is, learners acquire knowledge gradually from a lower to a higher level with the help of teachers. Based on theories of adaptive learning and “meta-learning self”, we advanced the alternative of “integrative learning”, that is, “under the role of ‘meta-learning self', learners actively integrate learning materials to achieve rapid and in-depth understanding of knowledge.” Furthermore, we designed an animal behavioral model to explore the effects of integrative learning versus progressive learning.Forty SD rats were selected as subjects, a two (Learning mode: Integrative Learning-IL, Progressive Learning - PL) by two (Sex: Male, Female) factorial design was employed, and a fourteen-unit integrative T-maze was constructed for the study. Five task stages were conceived to test the phenomenon and mechanisms of integrative learning: a learning stage, a retest stage after one week, a Gestalt transfer learning stage, a generalization/analysis test stage, and a segment fixation test stage.The results showed that: 1. During the learning stage, the number of errors in each trial in the IL group decreased exponentially over time, while that curve in the PL group was wavy; males exhibited significantly fewer errors in total than females; and the number of days to learning success in the IL-male group was significantly less than in the PL-male group, though the difference between female groups was not significant. 2. During both Gestalt transfer learning and generalization/analysis test stages, the IL group performed better than the PL group overall; during the segment fixation test stage, all groups appeared fixed more on the first segment of the original correct path. 3. To identify mechanisms for the IL groups' better performance, a dynamic heat-map path analysis was employed, showing that the IL group (especially males) appeared to consolidate the first key segment of the correct path repeatedly before quickly apprehending the rest of it, which had elements similar to the first one. Males in the PL group, however, were more likely to return to explore the earlier segment than females when allowed to enter a new segment of the maze. 4. The IL group as a whole either ate less of the chocolate reward at the finish of the correct path or moved the pellet elsewhere to eat, a pattern that was much more obvious in females.We arrived at the following conclusions: 1) Integrative learning is more efficient than progressive learning, and is characterized by the acquisition of more layered knowledge which can better assist long-term migration learning. 2) During the process of forming a “cognitive map”, information stored in memory has the characteristics of entirety, chunking, and categorization. 3) In a maze learning task, performance among males is more consistent than among females. 4) Some individuals may appear anxious or maladjusted during integrative learning.
Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2021-05-29
Abstract： [Objective] Cultivating the next generation of sound emotional, cognitive and socio-behavioral development is fundamental to human civilization, and the impact of early experiences cannot be ignored from the point of view of probabilistic epigenesis. This study aims to investigate the causal relationship between early experiences and later behavioral development based on a novel experimental model termed the “human-rat interaction paradigm” (HRIP). [Methods] Thirty-six one-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were selected as subjects. Based on the HRIP, three groups (Positive early experiences (PEE) / Negative early experiences (NEE) / Control) were intervened for 3 weeks, and the effects of the manipulation of early experiences on behavioral development were tested through a battery of behavioral paradigms. [Results] The results showed that: 1) During the emotional behavior tests, compared with the other two groups, the PEE group was more active in the open arm of the O-maze, more active in the center area of the open field, ate faster in the new and familiar environment, and had less hesitation to adapt to and utilize the new learning device. 2) During the learning behavior tests, the PEE group showed most rule-breaking exploratory behavior in the integrated-learning maze; while the majority of the NEE group learned to open the gate during the early stage of procedural learning, the firmness of their long-term memory was the lowest during the new object recognition task; the control group was overall passive during the whole series of learning behavior tests. 3) During the social behavior tests, the PEE group showed the most interests towards the toy rat, while the NEE group showed the most aversion towards the toy rat. At the same time, while all groups preferred a real rat to a toy rat, only the intervention groups (both PEE and NEE) showed clear preference in interacting with a real stranger rat to a real familiar rat. Moreover, during the empathy and pro-social behavioral tests, when there were no food rewards, all three groups of rats generally would open the gate to rescue the entrapped rat, and after multiple trials their latency to rescue became shorter and shorter; however, when there were food rewards to be shared with the entrapped rat, both the PEE and NEE groups were less likely to open the gate, and after multiple trials, their latency to rescue became longer and longer. When the entrapped rat was unable to reach the food reward without the subject’s active sharing, the NEE group showed much more frequent behavior of feeding interruption and vigilant sniffing, possibly for fear of losing the food to the entrapped rat. 4) During the social competition tests, when there were no food rewards in the tube test, the control group had the highest success rate; when there were food rewards to be competed for, the PEE group had the highest success rate. At the same time, the degree of social rank differentiation was smallest in the control group and largest in the PEE group. The NEE group showed clear differentiation between the high-rank individual and the middle/low-ranked individual. The success rate of the NEE group was overall the lowest during the inter-group social competition tests. [Conclusions] We arrived at the following conclusions: 1) On the long run, the early experience intervention based on the HRIP will have sustained and stable effects on the behavioral development. 2) Rich early experiences can improve the sensitivity to learning and social rules. Lack of early experiences can passivate learning and social behavior. 3) Positive early experience can promote the individual to have more interests in exploring "objects", produce more rule-breaking exploratory behavior and maintain the stability of goal behavior; in contrast, negative early experience can cause excessive arousal of negative emotions, inhibit exploration and interfere with the maintenance of goal behavior."
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2020-07-19
Abstract： The current learning concept in China is dominated by “gradual learning”, that is, learners acquire knowledge gradually from a lower level to a higher level with the help of teachers. Based on the theory of adaptive learning and meta learning self, we put forward the concept of "integrated learning", that is, "under the role of meta learning self, learners actively integrate learning materials to achieve rapid and in-depth understanding of knowledge", and we designed an animal behavioral model to explore the effects of integrated learning compared with progressive learning. A total of 40 SD rats were selected as subjects, and a 2 (Learning mode: Integrated Learning - IL, Progressive Learning - PL) by 2 (Sex: Male, Female) factorial design was employed, and a 14-unit integrative T-maze was constructed for the study. Five task stages were designed to test the phenomenon and mechanisms of integrated learning: the learning stage, the one-week-later retest stage, the Gestalt transfer learning stage, the generalization/analysis test stage and the segment fixation test stage. The results showed that: 1. During the learning stage, the number of learning errors in each trial in the IL group decreased exponentially as training went on, while that in the PL group was wavy; the same indicator in males was significantly less in total than that in females; and the number of days to learning success in the IL-male group was significantly less than that in the PL-male group, while the difference was not significant between IL- and PL- female groups. 2. During both Gestalt transfer learning and generalization/analysis test stages, the IL group performed better than the PL group as a whole; during the segment fixation test stage, all groups appeared fixed more on the first segment of the original correct path. 2. In searching for the mechanisms of the IL groups’ better performance, a dynamic heat-map path analysis was employed, and it was shown that the IL group (especially males) appeared to repeatedly consolidate the first key segment of the correct path before quickly apprehending the rest of the correct path, which had element similarities with the first one; whereas the males in the PL group were more likely to return to explore the earlier segment than the females when a new segment of the maze was allowed to enter. 3. The IL group as a whole either ate less of the chocolate reward at the finish of the correct path or they moved the pellet to somewhere else to eat, and this pattern was much more obvious in females. The results indicated that: 1. Integrated learning is more efficient than progressive learning, with the characteristics of acquiring more-layered knowledge which can easily assist long-term migration learning. 2. During the formation process of a “cognitive map”, information stored in memory has the characteristics of entirety, chunking and categorization; 3. In maze learning task, performance in males is more regular than that in females; 4. Some individuals may appear anxious or maladjusted during integrated learning.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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