Implicit learning: A way to improve visual search in spatial neglect?
Studies have shown that neglect patients are able to use stimulus regularities to orient faster toward the neglected side, without necessarily being aware of that information, or at the very least without being able to verbalize their knowledge. In order to better control for the involvement of explicit processes, the present study sought to test neglect patients' ability to detect more complex associations between stimuli using tasks similar to those used in implicit learning studies. Our results demonstrate that neglect patients had difficulties implicitly learning complex associations, contrary to what we found with controls. The possible influence of attentional and working memory impairments are discussed.
Department of Psychology, Cognition and Behavior, Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: m.wansard@ulg.ac.be.
Murielle
M
Wansard
Department of Psychology, Cognition and Behavior, Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Belgium.
Marie
M
Geurten
Service de Revalidation Neurologique, CHU Brugmann, Bruxelles, Belgium.
Catherine
C
Colson
Department of Psychology, Cognition and Behavior, Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Belgium.
Thierry
T
Meulemans
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
Association learning; Consciousness; Exploration of space; Right-hemisphere; Spatial attention; Visual neglect