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This study presents two experiments that explored consolidation of implicit sequence learning based on two dependent variables-reaction time (RT) and correct anticipations to clarify the role of sleep, and whether the manual component is necessary for consolidation processes. Experiment 1 (n = 37) explored the performance of adults using an ocular variant of the serial reaction time task (O-SRT) with manual activation (MA), and Experiment 2 (n = 37) used the ocular activation (OA) version of the task. Each experiment consisted of a Day and a Night group that performed two sessions of the O-SRT with an intervening 12-h offline period (morning/evening in Day group, evening/following morning in Night group). Night offline had an advantage only when manual response was required and when correct anticipations (i.e., accuracy) but not RT (i.e., speed) were measured. We associated this finding with the dual-learning processes required in the MA O-SRT that led to increased sequence specific learning overnight. When using the OA O-SRT, both groups demonstrated similar rates after offline in RT and correct anticipations. We interpreted this finding to reflect stabilization, which confirmed our hypothesis. As expected, all the groups demonstrated reduced performance when another sequence was introduced, thus reflecting sequence-specific learning. This study used a powerful procedure that allows measurement of implicit sequence learning in several ways: by evaluating two different measures (RT, correct anticipations) and by isolating different aspects of the task (i.e., with/without the manual learning component, more/less general skill learning), which are known to affect learning and consolidation., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Sequence learning is the cognitive faculty enabling everyday skill acquisition. In the lab, it is typically measured in speed of response to sequential stimuli, whereby faster responses are taken to indicate improved anticipation. However, response speed is an indirect measure of anticipation, that can provide only limited information on underlying processes. As a result, little is known about what is learned during sequence learning, and how that unfolds over time. In this work, eye movements that occurred before targets appeared on screen in an ocular serial reaction time (O-SRT) task provided an online indication of where participants anticipated upcoming targets. When analyzed in the context of the stimuli preceding them, oculomotor anticipations revealed several simultaneous learning processes. These processes influenced each other, as learning the task grammar facilitated acquisition of the target sequence. However, they were dissociable, as the grammar was similarly learned whether a repeating sequence inhabited the task or not. Individual differences were found in how the different learning processes progressed, allowing for similar performance to be produced for different latent reasons. This study provides new insights into the processes subserving sequence learning, and a new method for high-resolution study of it.

The acquisition of sequential knowledge is pivotal in forming skilled behavior. Despite extensive research of sequence learning, much remains unknown regarding what knowledge participants learn in such studies, and how that knowledge takes form over time. By tracking eye-movements made before stimuli appear on screen during a serial reaction time (SRT) task, we devised a method for assessing learning at the individual participant level in an item-based resolution. Our method enables uncovering what participants actually learn about the sequence presented to them, and when. Results demonstrate that learning is more heterogeneous than previously thought, driven by learning both of chunks and of statistics embedded in the sequence. Also, learning develops rapidly, but in a fragmented and non-sequential manner, eventually encompassing only a subset of available regularities. The tools developed in this work may aid in further dissociating processes and mechanisms underlying sequence learning and its impairments, in normal and in clinical populations., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Previous research has shown that when individuals are asked questions referring to previously seen visual stimuli, their eye movements spontaneously return to the visual area where the stimuli were first seen. This recurring eye movement phenomenon has been shown to assist the memory retrieval of visual images. Individuals with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) typically suffer from visual memory deficits as well as difficulty in spontaneously initiating mnemonic strategies. Perhaps TBI patients have trouble employing the eye movement reactivation strategy, thus further contributing to the visual memory deficits so prevalent among this population. Method: In this study, 27 healthy individuals and 27 patients with moderate-to-severe TBI from the Lowenstein Rehabilitation Hospital participated in a memory task. Participants were first exposed to stimuli and were then asked questions about the displayed stimuli. The testing session was conducted for each participant under two conditions: (1) while eyes were free to move over the screen; (2) while eyes were fixated. Results: Study findings show that the control group significantly benefitted from the free viewing in comparison to the fixed viewing condition, while this effect was absent among the TBI group. This was corroborated by eye tracking data showing that participants with TBI showed a minimal tendency to reactivate eye movements effectively, as occurs among the healthy group. Conclusions: The research findings expand our comprehension of visual memory among the TBI population, presenting rehabilitation health clinicians with new directions in understanding visual memory deficits.

Objective: To compare the eye movement patterns of adults with ADHD with those of controls as they perform the Stroop test. Method: Thirty individuals with ADHD (ages 18-31), and 30 controls participated in this study. The hypothesis was that under the incongruent condition, the group with ADHD would focus longer on the distracter than the controls. Results: Participants with ADHD showed a more pronounced Stroop effect than the controls. Eye movements indicated that more time was spent fixating on the target than on the distracter. The most significant differences between the groups were the overall time spent on the target and the number of fixations on the target, rather than on the distracter. Furthermore, the group with ADHD made more transitions between the target and distracter stimuli. Conclusion: These results were interpreted to indicate an inefficient strategy used by the group with ADHD in their attempt to ignore the distracter stimuli.

Introduction : The facilitation of memory for target stimuli due to the similarity of context in the learning and testing phases is known as the "Context-Effect" (CE). Previous studies reported that TBI affects memory for contextual information when tested directly. However, the indirect effect of contextual information on memory of target (i.e., CE) is preserved. Several studies have demonstrated that CE is composed of multiple, distinct cognitive processes. The present study includes four context conditions to enable identification of the exact process affected by TBI. In addition, eye movements were monitored to test three hypotheses: first, that the TBI group's dwell time on target (DTOT) at encoding would be less than that of controls. Second, that DTOT at encoding would be more highly associated with recognition at test for the control group than for the TBI group. Third, that overall DTOT at encoding on new, as compared to old items ("repetition effect"), would be less pronounced for the TBI group as compared to controls. Methods : Twenty-four patients with mild-to-severe TBI and 23 matched controls participated in this study. We presented participants with photographs of male faces shown wearing distinctive, trial-unique hats (yielding specific Target-Context pairing). Eye movements were recorded throughout the test task. Results : Memory for faces following TBI is impaired compared to that of controls. The magnitude and pattern of CE are the same for both groups. The TBI group has a lower DTOT compared to that of controls. However, the relative length of DTOT in the various conditions is similar in both groups. Conclusions : Behavioral results indicate that although the TBI group has impaired memory for faces, the CE pattern is similar to that of controls. Similarly, in terms of eye movements, although the TBI group focuses less on target, relations between the various conditions are similar in both groups.

Introduction: Studies have shown that skilled and disabled readers recall central ideas, which are important to the overall comprehension of the text, to a greater extent than peripheral, less important ideas after reading. However, readers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) recall significantly fewer central ideas than skilled readers. The present study was designed to examine whether difficulties in identifying, attending, and/or retrieving central ideas underlie their centrality deficit., Method: 28 adult university students with ADHD and 27 control students read three expository texts (successively) to summarize their central ideas, while their eye-movements were recorded. After reading, the participants recalled, recognized, and estimated the centrality level of all text ideas, which were divided into central and peripheral based on pretest ratings., Results: The participants with ADHD recalled fewer central ideas than controls, although they recognized and estimated their centrality to the same extent as controls. Moreover, the participants with ADHD invested more time in rereading central ideas than peripheral ones, to a greater extent than controls., Conclusions: The eye-movement data suggest that our university students with ADHD were aware of the reading task requirements, their difficulties, and the appropriate strategies for coping with them (i.e., rereading central ideas). More importantly, the present findings suggest that readers with ADHD have specific difficulty in retrieving central ideas that are available in their long-term memory. It supports the hypothesis that readers with ADHD establish fewer connections between text ideas during reading, and consequently benefit from a reduced number of retrieval cues after reading.

Recent evidence shows that compared to experienced drivers, young-inexperienced drivers are more likely to be involved in a crash mainly due to their poor hazard perception (HP) abilities. This skill develops with experience and may be developed through training. We assumed that as any other skill, HP developed through implicit learning. Nevertheless, current training methods, rely on deliberate learning where young-inexperienced drivers are instructed what hazards that they should seek and where they might be located. In this exploratory study, we investigated the effectiveness of a novel training procedure, in which learners were repeatedly exposed to target video clips of driving scenarios embedded within filler scenarios. Each of the target videos included scenarios of either a visible hazard, a hidden materialized hazard or hidden unmaterialized hazard. Twenty-three young-inexperienced drivers and 35 experienced drivers participated in training session followed by a learning transference testing session and 24 additional young-inexperienced drivers participated only in the transference testing session with no training, during which participants were shown novel hazards video clips. Participants responded by pressing a button when they identified a hazard. Eye movement was also tracked using fixations patterns as a proxy to evaluate HP performance. During training, young-inexperienced drivers gradually increased their focus on visible materialized hazards but exhibited no learning curve with respect to hidden hazards. During the learning transference session, both trained groups focused on hazards earlier compared to untrained drivers. These results imply that repetitive training may facilitate HP acquisition among young-inexperienced drivers. Patterns concerning experienced drivers are also discussed., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study tested Context-Dependent Effect (CDE) on face recognition by viewing facial expressions as context and face identity as the target. Three groups were defined - Neutral, Happy and Angry, reflecting the facial expressions of the faces presented at the study phase. At the study phase, participants were presented with 42 color photos of faces for 5 s each. At the test phase, participants were presented with 84 pictures of faces, half of which had been viewed beforehand (old). One-third of the old and new faces displayed the same facial expression shown at study, and the remaining two-thirds had one of the other two expressions. Behavioral results show that consistency of facial expressions between study and test facilitated face recognition (i.e., CDE). Eye-tracking results showed that lengthier focus on a face at the study phase gives the participant an advantage only when the same face is presented again at the test phase. Angry expressions intensify binding more than happy or neutral expressions, resulting in higher costs when changing facial expression between study and test. The theoretical implications of these results in terms of the relationship between facial identity and facial expression are discussed. The practical implications, particularly for eyewitness memory literature, are also discussed., (Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Contemporary research literature indicates that eye movements during the learning and testing phases can predict and affect future recognition processes. Nevertheless, only partial information exists regarding eye movements in the various components of recognition processes: Hits, Correct rejections, Misses and False Alarms (FA). In an attempt to address this issue, participants in this study viewed human faces in a yes/no recognition memory paradigm. They were divided into two groups - one group that carried out the testing phase immediately after the learning phase (n = 30) and another group with a 15-minute delay between phases (n = 28). The results showed that the Immediate group had a lower FA rate than the Delay group, and that no Hit rate differences were observed between the two groups. Eye movements differed between the recognition processes in the learning and the testing phases, and this pattern interacted with the group type. Hence, eye movement measures seem to track memory accuracy during both learning and testing phases and this pattern also interacts with the length of delay between learning and testing. This pattern of results suggests that eye movements are indicative of present and future recognition processes.

The serial reaction time (SRT) task has generated a very large amount of research. Nevertheless the debate continues as to the exact cognitive processes underlying implicit sequence learning. Thus, the first goal of this study is to elucidate the underlying cognitive processes enabling sequence acquisition. We therefore compared reaction time (RT) in sequence learning in a standard manual activated (MA) to that in an ocular activated (OA) version of the task, within a single experimental setting. The second goal is to use eye movement measures to compare anticipation, as an additional indication of sequence learning, between the two versions of the SRT. Performance of the group given the MA version of the task (n = 29) was compared with that of the group given the OA version (n = 30). The results showed that although overall, RT was faster for the OA group, the rate of sequence learning was similar to that of the MA group performing the standard version of the SRT. Because the stimulus-response association is automatic and exists prior to training in the OA task, the decreased reaction time in this version of the task reflects a purer measure of the sequence learning that occurs in the SRT task. The results of this study show that eye tracking anticipation can be measured directly and can serve as a direct measure of sequence learning. Finally, using the OA version of the SRT to study sequence learning presents a significant methodological contribution by making sequence learning studies possible among populations that struggle to perform manual responses.

Various tools have been designed to classify the wholistic/analytic cognitive style, based mostly on behavioral data that reveals little about how these processes function. The main goal of this study is to characterize patterns of eye movements (EM) that are typical of learners with tendencies toward wholistic/analytic styles. Forty students completed the E-CSA-W/A test, while their EM were simultaneously monitored. The results revealed that the overall response time of the wholist group was lower in both tasks. The differences in response time between the groups are interpreted as being influenced by impulsive/reflective styles. While the behavioral data provide us with the end result and quantitative differences between the groups, EM provide us with the qualitative information about the process that led to the response. The study showed that the wholist group is characterized by less fixations and transitions than the analytic group, which is interpreted as reflecting use of whole/partial strategy.

Raven matrices are used for assessing fluid intelligence and the intellectual level of groups with low intelligence. Our study addresses qualitative analysis of information processing in Raven matrices performance among individuals with intellectual disability with that of their typically developed (TD) counterparts. Twenty-three adults with non-specific intellectual disability (NSID), 15 adults with Down syndrome (DS) and 35 children with TD matched for mental age, participated. Participants solved the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices and five items from the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices while having their eye movements monitored. The overall percent of correct answers was significantly higher for the TD group compared to two ID group. Comparison of the eye movement pattern of each group indicated that the TD group spent more time on the matrices before shifting to the options, than the two ID groups. The TD group made significantly less switches from one rejoins to another, than the ID groups. The difference in the scanning pattern between the TD and the ID groups is interpreted as a reflection of two different types of strategies, Constructive matching and Response elimination, respectively. There were no differences in eye scanning between participants with NSID and those with DS., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Eighteen adults with intellectual disability (ID) and 20 children with typical development (TD) matched for cognitive level, participated in this study. Participants solved perceptual and conceptual analogies (from the Conceptual and Perceptual Analogical Modifiability Test-CPAM) while having their eye movements monitored. As predicted, the overall percent of correct answers was significantly higher for the TD group compared to that of the ID group. Comparison of the eye movement pattern of each group while solving the analogies revealed that in addition to the quantitative difference between the groups, there is a qualitative difference in the process of solving the analogies. The difference in the scanning pattern between the TD and the ID groups is interpreted as a reflection of two different types of strategies, Constructive matching and Response elimination, respectively., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The inclusion of technology in schools, coupled with the importance of promoting reading for students with difficulties in particular, has increased the need for investigating processes that support reading and reading comprehension. The present study therefore focuses on the characteristics of reading from an educational digital book containing an expository text and illustrations, conducted by means of an eye tracking methodology enabling online reflection of the reading process. The effect on reading a highlighted text with illustrations was compared to that of reading a static text with illustrations. Participants included 30 poor readers and 31 typical readers aged 8-10.9, randomly assigned to two groups according to reading mode: An experimental group that read a highlighted text with an illustration and a control group that read a static text with an illustration. The findings indicate that among poor readers, the highlighted text in the digital book evoked greater visual focusing on the text and more transitions between the text and the illustration. The findings of the study contribute to our knowledge on multimedia learning and the process of reading among poor and typical readers while reading highlighted text with illustrations.

The effects of gender, strategy and task characteristics on children's mental rotation (MR) behavioral measures and eye movements were studied. Eye movements reflect thinking pattern and assist understanding mental rotation performance. Eighty-three fourth-grade children (44 boys and 39 girls) were administered the Computerized Windows Mental Rotation test (CWMR) while having their eye movements monitored and completed a Strategy Self-Report (global/local/combined) and a Spatial Span (WM) subtest. Difficulty level affected performance and was reflected in a different eye movement pattern. Boys were more accurate than girls, but they did not differ in their eye movement pattern. Eye movement pattern was related to strategy, accuracy and reaction time, revealing that the global and combined strategy were more effective compared with local strategy. WM was found to correlate with accuracy at the easy level of the test. The usage of eye movement measures assists in elaborating our knowledge regarding MR performance among children and enable a wider understanding regarding the interaction between gender, strategy and difficulty level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Context-Dependent Effect (CDE) is a process by which restoring the original learning context enhances recall ability of the material being studied. One type of context is body expressions. Memory is one of the most common areas affected by Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). However, although the performance of people with TBI is lower than that of healthy people in most memory-related parameters, both groups show evidence for CDE. We examined the CDE via behavioral and eye movement measures. Participants and Methods: Twenty-four healthy individuals and 27 patients with moderate-tosevere TBI participated in a memory task. Participants were exposed to pictures of people with neutral facial expression and neutral body expression and were asked to remember them for a subsequent memory test. In the testing session, they were asked to determine whether or not the person presented to them had appeared before, under two conditions: (1) where the context remains constant (facial expression and body expression remained neutral- the Repeat condition) (2) where the context changes (facial expression remained neutral and the body changed to angry or happy expression - the Re-pair condition). Results: While memory of the individuals with TBI was poorer than that of the control group, both groups exhibited CDE, as this effect was stronger in the Repeat condition compared to the Re-pair angry condition. We found that participants spent most of their time looking at the head. In addition, in both groups, we found a CDE and a group effect with regard to the difference in Dwell Time, so DT toward faces in the Repeat condition was higher than toward faces in the Re-pair condition. Also, DT toward correctly recognized people was higher among the control group than the TBI group. This effect appeared in the study and test phases. Conclusions: This study supports previous research showing evidence for CDE using body expression in the TBI group, like the control group, and extends our comprehension of the relationship between eye movements, memory, and context of facial and body expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that when individuals are asked questions referring to visual stimuli seen before, their eye movements spontaneously return to the visual area where the stimuli were first seen. This recurring eye movement phenomenon has been shown to assist the memory retrieval of visual images. It is thus possible that oculomotor dysfunction can account for visual memory deficits, due to their diminished tendency to retrieve the same eye movement pattern. Considering patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) characteristically suffer from visual memory deficits, also typical among this population, can partially account for this memory impairment. In this study, 27 healthy individuals and 27 patients with TBI from the Lowenstein Rehabilitation Hospital participated in a memory task. Participants were first exposed to stimuli and were then asked questions about the displayed stimuli. The testing session was conducted for each participant under two conditions: (1) while eyes were free to move over the screen; (2) while eyes were fixated. Study findings show that the control group significantly benefitted from the free-viewing condition in comparison to the fix-viewing condition, while this effect was absent among the TBI group. This was corroborated by the eye tracking data showing that participants with TBI showed a minimal tendency to effectively reactivate eye movements as among the healthy group. The research findings expand our comprehension of visual memory among the TBI population and present rehabilitation health clinicians with new directions in understanding visual memory deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]