Learning the Abstract General Task Structure in a Rapidly Changing Task Content.

The ability to learn abstract generalized structures of tasks is crucial for humans to adapt to changing environments and novel tasks. In a series of five experiments, we investigated this ability using a Rapid Instructed Task Learning paradigm (RITL) comprising short miniblocks, each involving two novel stimulus-response rules. Each miniblock included (a) instructions for the novel stimulus-response rules, (b) a NEXT phase involving a constant (familiar) intervening task (0-5 trials), (c) execution of the newly instructed rules (2 trials). The results show that including a NEXT phase (and hence, a prospective memory demand) led to relatively more robust abstract learning as indicated by increasingly faster responses with experiment progress. Multilevel modeling suggests that the prospective memory demand was just another aspect of the abstract task structure which has been learned.

Enhancing task-demands disrupts learning but enhances transfer gains in short-term task-switching training.

Content variability was previously suggested to promote stronger learning effects in cognitive training whereas less variability incurred transfer costs (Sabah et al. Psychological Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1006-7 , 2018). Here, we expanded these findings by additionally examining the role of learners' control in short-term task-switching training by comparing voluntary task-switching to a yoked control forced task-switching condition. To this end, four training conditions were compared: (1) forced fixed content, (2) voluntary fixed content, (3) forced varied content, and (3) voluntary varied content. To further enhance task demands, bivalent stimuli were used during training. Participants completed baseline assessment commencing with task-switching and verbal fluency blocks, followed by seven training blocks and last by task-switching (near transfer) and verbal fluency (far transfer) blocks, respectively. For the baseline and transfer task-switching blocks, we used the exact same baseline and first transfer block from Sabah et al. (Psychological Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1006-7 , 2018), employing univalent stimuli and alternating-runs task sequence. Our results pointed again to the contribution of content variability to task-switching performance. No indications for far transfer were observed. Allowing for learners' control was not found to produce additional transfer gains beyond content variability. A between-study comparison suggests that enhanced task demands, by means of bivalency, promoted higher transfer gains in the current study when compared to Sabah et al. (Psychological Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1006-7 , 2018). Taken together, the current results provide further evidence to the beneficial impact of variability on training outcomes. The lack of modulatory effect for learners' control is discussed in relation to possible methodological limitations.

Academic Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension Skills Among Seventh-Graders in Arabic as L1.

The current study attempted to investigate the contribution of an intervention program to fostering Arabic academic vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skills among seventh grade Arabic native speaking pupils. For this purpose, 247 pupils from four schools in northern Israel have participated in the study. Arabic literacy units that targeted academic vocabulary and reading comprehension skills were administrated for a period of 5 months. To assess the efficacy of the intervention program, academic vocabulary tests (receptive and productive) as well as reading comprehension test were administrated. As indicated by the results, the interventional group showed significantly higher performance in reading comprehension and productive academic vocabulary when compared to the control group. In contrast, no significant improvement was noted in receptive academic vocabulary knowledge. Taken together, the study results point to the contribution of comprehensive and direct academic vocabulary instructional approaches to promoting academic vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of academic texts. Moreover, it stresses the need for policy change and curricular adjustments in Arabic language instruction, acknowledging the importance of fostering academic language skills in the road to academic success.

When less is more: costs and benefits of varied vs. fixed content and structure in short-term task switching training.

Training variability has been brought forward as one possible moderator for wider scale transfer effects in cognitive training. However, little is known about which aspects of task variability are important for optimizing training outcomes. This study systematically examined the impact of variability in the different task components on outcome measures, here manipulating content (whether the task stimuli remained fixed or changed between blocks) and the deeper structural task configuration (task sequence: whether the task sequence was fixed or random). Short-term task switching training was implemented with one of four training variability conditions: fixed content\fixed structure; fixed content\ random structure; varied content\fixed structure and varied content\varied structure. The experiment consisted of a baseline block, seven training blocks (learning phase), followed by two transfer blocks, one with fixed and one with random task structure, respectively. In the learning phase, more rapid training gains were observed in the fixed content as compared to varied content. Interestingly, training with fixed content resulted in a trend for costs when transferred to a novel task switching context. In contrast, moderate transfer gains were noted in the varied content condition, manifested specifically on switch trials. These results suggest that task (content) variability is one of the means to improve positive transfer and avoid negative transfer. Additionally, and in agreement with the wide literature on training, this finding suggests that conditions that prevent training gains are in fact beneficial for learning generalization.