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Abstract:
An ERP (Event Related Potential) category-learning study
compared brain activity between good learners and poor learners,
and differences between rule and memory based strategies.
Participants categorized imaginary animals into two different
categories. The categories were structured so that each animal
could be successfully categorized on the basis of a rule or memory.
Good learners (n = 40) were defined as performing at or above 75%
correct (poor learners, n = 31). Good learners were classified as
rule (n = 7) or memory learners (n = 30) based on their responses
to ambiguous test trials (rule or memory strategies predict
opposite category membership) and a questionnaire. The grand
average ERPs showed differences between good learners and poor
learners: good learners had higher amplitude ERPs from 200 ms to
700 ms. Rule learners had higher amplitudes in posterior electrodes
from 200-700 ms than memory learners. In anterior electrodes,
exemplar learners showed higher amplitudes at earlier latencies
(200-350ms) and rule learners showed higher amplitudes at later
latencies (350-700 ms). The results suggest that rule learning is
associated with higher visual area activity and memory learning
shows earlier activation of frontal lobe areas than rule learning.
Although rule and memory learning have been presented at times as
mutually exclusive, these results indicate that both strategies may
be used and may be associated with different patterns of brain
activity.
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