Dataset Information

Mechanisms of offline motor learning at a microscale of seconds in large-scale crowdsourced data.

ABSTRACT: Performance improvements during early human motor skill learning are suggested to be driven by short periods of rest during practice, at the scale of seconds. To reveal the unknown mechanisms behind these "micro-offline" gains, we leveraged the sampling power offered by online crowdsourcing (cumulative N over all experiments?=?951). First, we replicated the original in-lab findings, demonstrating generalizability to subjects learning the task in their daily living environment (N?=?389). Second, we show that offline improvements during rest are equivalent when significantly shortening practice period duration, thus confirming that they are not a result of recovery from performance fatigue (N?=?118). Third, retroactive interference immediately after each practice period reduced the learning rate relative to interference after passage of time (N?=?373), indicating stabilization of the motor memory at a microscale of several seconds. Finally, we show that random termination of practice periods did not impact offline gains, ruling out a contribution of predictive motor slowing (N?=?71). Altogether, these results demonstrate that micro-offline gains indicate rapid, within-seconds consolidation accounting for early skill learning.

SUBMITTER: Bonstrup M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7272649 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mechanisms of offline motor learning at a microscale of seconds in large-scale crowdsourced data.

Bönstrup Marlene M Iturrate Iñaki I Hebart Martin N MN Censor Nitzan N Cohen Leonardo G LG

NPJ science of learning 20200604

Performance improvements during early human motor skill learning are suggested to be driven by short periods of rest during practice, at the scale of seconds. To reveal the unknown mechanisms behind these "micro-offline" gains, we leveraged the sampling power offered by online crowdsourcing (cumulative <i>N</i> over all experiments = 951). First, we replicated the original in-lab findings, demonstrating generalizability to subjects learning the task in their daily living environment (<i>N</i> = ...[more]

PMID: 32550003

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Project description:Many daily activities involve synchronizing with other people's actions. Previous literature has revealed that a slowdown of performance occurs whenever the action to be carried out is different to the one observed (i.e., visuomotor interference). However, action execution can be facilitated by observing a different action if it calls for an interactive gesture (i.e., social motor priming). The aim of this study is to investigate the costs and benefits of spontaneously processing a social response and then executing the same or a different action. Participants performed two different types of grips, which could be either congruent or not with the socially appropriate response and with the observed action. In particular, participants performed a precision grip (PG; thumb-index fingers opposition) or a whole-hand grasp (WHG; fingers-palm opposition) after observing videos showing an actor performing a PG and addressing them (interactive condition) or not (non-interactive condition). Crucially, in the interactive condition, the most appropriate response was a WHG, but in 50 percent of trials participants were asked to perform a PG. This procedure allowed us to measure both the facilitator effect of performing an action appropriate to the social context (WHG)-but different with respect to the observed one (PG)-and the cost of inhibiting it. These effects were measured by means of 3-D kinematical analysis of movement. Results show that, in terms of reaction time and movement time, the interactive request facilitated (i.e., speeded) the socially appropriate action (WHG), whereas interfered with (i.e., delayed) a different action (PG), although observed actions were always PGs. This interference also manifested with an increase of maximum grip aperture, which seemingly reflects the concurrent representation of the socially appropriate response. Overall, these findings extend previous research by revealing that physically incongruent action representations can be integrated into a single action plan even during an offline task and without any training.

Project description:BackgroundDigital learning environments have become very common in the training of medical professionals, and students often use such platforms for exam preparation. Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are a common format in medical exams and are used by students to prepare for said exams.ObjectiveWe aimed to examine whether particular learning activities contributed more strongly than others to users' exam performance.MethodsWe analyzed data from users of an online platform that provides learning materials for medical students in preparation for their final exams. We analyzed whether the number of learning cards viewed and the number of MCQs taken were positively related to learning outcomes. We also examined whether viewing learning cards or answering MCQs was more effective. Finally, we tested whether taking individual notes predicted learning outcomes, and whether taking notes had an effect after controlling for the effects of learning cards and MCQs. Our analyses from the online platform Amboss are based on user activity data, which supplied the number of learning cards studied and test questions answered. We also included the number of notes from each of those 23,633 users who had studied at least 200 learning cards and had answered at least 1000 test exam questions in the 180 days before their state exam. The activity data for this analysis was collected retrospectively, using Amboss archival usage data from April 2014 to April 2017. Learning outcomes were measured using the final state exam scores that were calculated by using the answers voluntarily entered by the participants.ResultsWe found correlations between the number of cards studied (r=.22; P<.001) and the number of test questions that had been answered (r=.23; P<.001) with the percentage of correct answers in the learners' medical exams. The number of test questions answered still yielded a significant effect, even after controlling for the number of learning cards studied using a hierarchical regression analysis (β=.14; P<.001; ΔR2=.017; P<.001). We found a negative interaction between the number of learning cards and MCQs, indicating that users with high scores for learning cards and MCQs had the highest exam scores. Those 8040 participants who had taken at least one note had a higher percentage of correct answers (80.94%; SD=7.44) than those who had not taken any notes (78.73%; SD=7.80; t23631=20.95; P<.001). In a stepwise regression, the number of notes the participants had taken predicted the percentage of correct answers over and above the effect of the number of learning cards studied and of the number of test questions entered in step one (β=.06; P<.001; ΔR2=.004; P<.001).ConclusionsThese results show that online learning platforms are particularly helpful whenever learners engage in active elaboration in learning material, such as by answering MCQs or taking notes.

Dataset Information

Mechanisms of offline motor learning at a microscale of seconds in large-scale crowdsourced data.

Publications

Mechanisms of offline motor learning at a microscale of seconds in large-scale crowdsourced data.

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