PowerPoint Presentation
Rzvan Jurchi, Adrian OpreCognitive Psychology Laboratory,
Department of Psychology, Babe-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca,
RomaniaImplicit learning of cognitive structures with emotional
components
IntroductionMethodsProcedureResultsConclusionsReferences
ParticipantsThirty-six students (10 men); mean age 22.55 years
(SD = 3.95).
MaterialsStrings of 5 to 10 images:emotionally neutral
imagessadness-inducing images (from the International Affective
Picture System).
The place of the images was determined by an artificial grammar
(e.g., Fig. 1).The images were presented sequentially, for two
seconds each. Where the grammar requested a sadness-inducing image,
one image appeared randomly, out of 10 possible sadness-inducing
images (Fig. 2).The current investigation attempts to uncover the
possible role played by implicit learning in generation and
maintenance of affective responses. Using a modified version of the
artificial grammar learning paradigm (Norman & Price, 2012;
Reber, 1967), we illustrate a possible approach to this
topic.Hypotheses
Participants will learn an artificial grammar that comprises
neutral components and a negative emotion.
The learning will be unconscious.Test 1: m = 54.91% (SD= 10.31),
t(31)=2.69, p=.01, d=0.49.
Test 2: 51.13% (SD = 16.16)Test 3: 50.16% (SD = 13.99), ps >
.70. Rules and memory: m = 60.14%, (SD= 19.99); t(29)= 2.77, p=
.009, d= 0.50.
Guessing: 53.11% (SD=28.45) Intuition and familiarity: 50.33%
(SD=13.24),ps > . 50.Correct responses m =70.28% (SD=8.74)
Incorrect responsesm = 69.74% (SD=9.21)
t(31)=0.65, p= .51, d= 0.13.Participants' above chance accuracy
in Test 1 indicates that they have learned the grammar. Moreover,
their lack of accuracy in Tests 2 and 3 indicates that they have
learned the emotion as an essential part of the grammar.
The lack of difference between confidence in correct and
incorrect responses reveal that the performance was mostly
sustained by unconscious information, while the above chance
accuracy for responses based on rules and memory indicates that
there has also been a significant amount of explicit knowledge
(Dienes et al., 1995; Dienes & Scott, 2005).
Therefore, this is one of the first studies showing that
unconscious learning could be involved in the acquisition of
complex cognitive structures with emotional components.
Dienes, Z., Altmann, G., Kwan, L., & Goode, A. (1995).
Unconscious knowledge of artificial grammars is applied
strategically.Journal of Experimental Psych: Learning, Memory, and
Cognition,21(5), 13221338.Dienes, Z., & Scott, R. (2005).
Measuring unconscious knowledge: Distinguishing structural
knowledge and judgment knowledge.Psychological Research,69(5-6),
338-351.Norman, E., & Price, M. C. (2012). Social intuition as
a form of implicit learning: Sequences of body movements are
learned less explicitly than letter sequences.Advances in Cognitive
Psychology,8(2), 121-131.Reber, A. S. (1967). Implicit learning of
artificial grammars. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
Behaviour, 6, 855863.
Contact info
Rzvan JurchiCognitive Psychology Laboratory, Republicii 37
Street 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
[email protected]
Tel: +40740082595Acquisition phaseHalf of the participants saw
30 strings generated according to one grammar, the other half saw
30 strings generated according to another one.
Test phase 1 Forty new strings, 20 grammatical and 20
ungrammatical.Participants had to decide which strings were
grammatical and which were not.Assessment of conscious/unconscious
status of learning:After every classification they had to
report:the basis of their response, choosing from guess, intuition,
familiarity, rules, and memory (Dienes & Scott, 2005).the
confidence in the response, on a scale ranging from 50% to 100%
(Dienes et al., 1995).
Test phases 2 and 310 grammatical and 10 ungrammatical strings
from which the emotional images were eliminated (Test 2) or
replaced with randomly-appearing neutral images (Test 3).
Figure 2. Examples of sadness-inducing imagesFigure 1. One of
the artificial grammars
