Relationship between skill training and skill transfer through the example of bimanual motor learning.

Skill training aims to improve the performance of the task at hand and aims to transfer the acquired skill to related tasks. Both skill training and skill transfer are part of our everyday lives, and essential for survival, and their importance is reflected in years of research. Despite these enormous efforts, however, the complex relationship between skill training and skill transfer is not yet portrayed completely. Building upon two theories, we probed this relationship through the example of bimanual learning with a large cross-sectional design (N = 450) using an online framework. We designed five training tasks which differed in the variance of the training material (schema theory) and three transfer tasks differing in their similarity to the training task (identical elements theory). Theoretically, the five training tasks and the three transfer tasks varied approximately linearly from each other. Empirical data, however, suggested merely the presence of three statistically different training tasks and two significantly different transfer tasks, indicating a nonlinear relationship. Against our expectation, Bayesian statistics suggested that the type of skill training was not related to the type of skill transfer. However, the amount of skill training was positively related to the amount of skill transfer. Together, we showed that motor learning studies can be conducted online. Further, our results shed light on the complex relationship between skill training and skill transfer. Understanding this relationship has wide-ranging practical implications for the general population, particularly for musicians, athletes and patients recovering from injury.

Heading Direction Tracks Internally Directed Selective Attention in Visual Working Memory.

We shift our gaze even when we orient attention internally to visual representations in working memory. Here, we show the bodily orienting response associated with internal selective attention is widespread as it also includes the head. In three virtual reality experiments, participants remembered 2 visual items. After a working memory delay, a central color cue indicated which item needed to be reproduced from memory. After the cue, head movements became biased in the direction of the memorized location of the cued memory item-despite there being no items to orient toward in the external environment. The heading-direction bias had a distinct temporal profile from the gaze bias. Our findings reveal that directing attention within the spatial layout of visual working memory bears a strong relation to the overt head orienting response we engage when directing attention to sensory information in the external environment. The heading-direction bias further demonstrates common neural circuitry is engaged during external and internal orienting of attention.

The Relationship between Short- and Long-Term Memory Is Preserved across the Age Range.

Both short- and long-term memories decline with healthy ageing. The aims of the current study were twofold: firstly, to build on previous studies and investigate the presence of a relationship between short- and long-term memories and, secondly, to examine cross-sectionally whether there are changes in this relationship with age. In two experiments, participants across the age range were tested on contextual-spatial memories after short and long memory durations. Experimental control in stimulus materials and task demands enabled the analogous encoding and probing for both memory durations, allowing us to examine the relationship between the two memory systems. Across two experiments, in line with previous studies, we found both short-term memory and long-term memory declined from early to late adulthood. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between short- and long-term memory performance, which, interestingly, persisted throughout the age range. Our findings suggest a significant degree of common vulnerability to healthy ageing for short- and long-term memories sharing the same spatial-contextual associations. Furthermore, our tasks provide a sensitive and promising framework for assessing and comparing memory function at different timescales in disorders with memory deficits at their core.