Planting a Seed: Applications of Cognitive Principles for Improving Food Choices.

People are not very good at estimating quantitative information, but seeding the knowledge base has been shown to improve estimation accuracy of numerical information (e.g., Brown & Siegler, 1996). In the present study, the seeding technique was applied to a calorie estimation task because people often underestimate the number of calories contained in food, which could lead to overconsumption. Participants practiced making calorie estimates, without feedback, of both simple (e.g., apples) and complex (e.g., apple pie) foods. During training, which included only simple foods, participants in the seeding condition made estimates and were told the correct number of calories after each estimate. Those in the view-only condition were merely told the number of calories in each item without having to make any estimates. Participants in the control condition neither made estimates nor were told calorie information for the foods shown. During testing, all participants made calorie estimates for items shown previously and new items. Participants in the seeding condition showed significantly better learning and transfer of calorie information than did those in the control condition, although viewing calorie information was equally beneficial for learning and transfer. In both the seeding and view-only conditions, transfer applied to items presented during training and other similar simple food items but not to more complex foods, which were not included during training. The practical applications of this research to education and health are discussed.

Examining the relationship between knowing and doing: training for improving food choices.

Food is essential for maintaining human life; however, our food choices can have negative impacts on the health of our bodies and our planet. For example, obesity and diet-related diseases are increasing at alarming rates. In addition, agricultural chemicals are detectable in many rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water. Thus, understanding what factors contribute to food choices is essential for those interested in social change. This article reviews some principles of learning and memory and how applications of those principles contribute to our understanding of food choices. Experiments that examine different ways to promote learning, retention, and generalization of knowledge, specifically focused on ways to enhance learning of nutritional information and food choices, are also reviewed. The practical applications of this research to training, health, and public policy are also discussed.

Specificity and transfer effects in time production skill: examining the role of attention.

Two experiments examined transfer of a prospective, time production skill under conditions involving changes in concurrent task requirements. Positive transfer of the time production skill might be expected only when the attentional demands of the concurrent task were held constant from training to test. However, some positive transfer was found even when the concurrent task at retraining was made either easier or more difficult than the concurrent task learned during training. The amount and direction of transfer depended more on the pacing of the stimuli in the secondary task than on the difficulty of the secondary task, even though difficulty affects attentional demands more. These findings are consistent with the procedural reinstatement principle of skill learning, by which transfer from one task to another depends on an overlap in procedures required by the two skills.

Task integration in time production.

Two experiments examined training on a prospective time production task. Participants produced intervals, expressed in fixed arbitrary units, while performing a concurrent secondary task. After a 15-min filled delay, the participants were retrained on the same tasks. These experiments tested whether the primary and secondary tasks would be integrated into a single task. In Experiment 1, the secondary-task requirements were manipulated, but the time production task was fixed. In Experiment 2, the time production task requirements were manipulated, but the secondary task was fixed. The results suggest that participants integrate primary- and secondary-task requirements.

Exploring specificity of speeded aiming movements: Examining different measures of transfer.

Participants were trained and tested to move a mouse cursor from a start position to targets on a circular display in a perceptual-motor reversal condition, with horizontal, but not vertical, reversals. During training, some participants (experimental) moved to two targets either along a single diagonal axis (D1) or along both axes (D2). For D2, return movements from the targets were in the same direction as instructed movements to unpracticed targets. Others (control) trained on all targets. Testing always involved all targets. At test, movement times (to reach the target after leaving the start position) were shorter on trained than on untrained targets, especially for the D1 condition, documenting training specificity. However, movement times in the experimental conditions to new targets during testing were shorter than those in the control condition during training, documenting transfer of learning, with more transfer for D2 than for D1. Initiation times (to leave the start position after target onset) showed no transfer. The results provide evidence that specificity and transfer are not mutually exclusive and depend on the measure used to assess performance.

Global inhibition and midcourse corrections in speeded aiming.

When some perceptual-motor relationships are reversed, participants might adopt a global inhibition strategy that replaces all normal movements with reversed movements. In two experiments, participants practiced moving a cursor from a start position to target locations. In a perceptual-motor reversal condition, in which horizontal but not vertical movements were reversed, participants were trained to move only to certain locations. Testing involved moving to all locations under the same reversal condition. Training on a subset of locations yielded partial transfer to untrained locations. These results support a global inhibition hypothesis modified to include both midcourse corrective movements and training specificity.

A mental practice superiority effect: less retroactive interference and more transfer than physical practice.

Two experiments explored the benefits to retention and transfer conferred by mental practice. During familiarization, participants typed 4-digit numbers and took an immediate typing test on both old and new numbers. Participants then typed old 4-digit numbers, either physically or mentally, with either a different response configuration or the opposite hand from that used during familiarization. On a delayed test, participants physically typed both old and new numbers with the same response configuration and hand used during familiarization. Mental practice led to less retroactive interference and more transfer than did physical practice, supporting the hypothesis that mental practice strengthens an abstract representation that does not involve specific effectors.

Pushing the limits of imagination: mental practice for learning sequences.

In 2 experiments, the efficacy of motor imagery for learning to type number sequences was examined. Adults practiced typing 4-digit numbers. Then, during subsequent training, they either typed in the same or a different location, imagined typing, merely looked at each number, or performed an irrelevant task. Repetition priming (faster responses for old relative to new numbers) was observed on an immediate test and after a 3-month delay for participants who imagined typing. Improvement across the delay in typing old and new numbers was found for the imagined and actual typing conditions but not for the other conditions. The findings suggest that imagery can be used to acquire and retain representations of sequences and to improve general typing skill.

Specificity effects in training and transfer of speeded responses.

In 3 experiments, participants, on signal, moved a cursor from a central position to 1 of 8 numerically labeled locations on the circumference of a clock face. Movements were controlled by a mouse in 1 of 4 conditions: vertical reversal, horizontal reversal, combined reversals, or normal (i.e., no reversals). Participants were trained in 1, 2, or 3 of these conditions and were tested 1 week later with either the same or a different condition. There were improvements across training and perfect retention across the delay. There was little or no transfer, however, even when training involved combined reversals or multiple conditions. These results illustrate severe specificity of training and are interpreted in terms of acquired inhibition of normal responses.

Skill training, retention, and transfer: the effects of a concurrent secondary task.

In two experiments, we examined training, retention, and transfer of a duration production skill in a prospective paradigm. Participants were trained with feedback and then were either tested immediately for transfer without feedback or retrained with feedback 1 week later. There were three training and retraining conditions, two involving secondary tasks. Retention of the duration production skill was perfect across the 1-week delay when the secondary task condition was unchanged, but there was no skill transfer when that condition was changed. These findings demonstrate specificity of training, with the assumption that the cognitive operations learned during duration production training incorporate requirements of the secondary task. More generally, this study challenges the current practice in which training conditions often do not match eventual testing conditions.