Explicit learning of arbitrary and non-arbitrary action-effect relations in adults and 4-year-olds.

Ideomotor theories claim that carrying out a movement that produces a perceivable effect creates a bidirectional association between the two, which can then be used by action control processes to retrieve the associated action by anticipating its outcome. Previous implicit-learning studies have shown that practice renders novel but action-contingent stimuli effective retrieval cues of the action they used to follow, suggesting that experiencing sequences of actions and effects creates bidirectional action-effect associations. We investigated whether action-effect associations are also acquired under explicit learning conditions and whether familiar action-effect relations (such as between a trumpet and a trumpet sound) are learned the same way as novel, arbitrary relations are.

The neural substrate of the ideomotor principle: an event-related fMRI analysis.

The present fMRI study sought to investigate the neural basis of perceiving learned action effects and thereby to test for hypotheses based on the ideomotor principle. For this purpose, we had subjects undergo a two-phase experimental procedure comprising an acquisition and a test phase, the latter administered inside the MR scanner. During the acquisition phase, free-choice button presses were contingently followed by one of two tones of different pitch which thereby should become "learned action effects".

Developmental changes in oculomotor control and working-memory efficiency.

In the present study, we examined the developmental changes in the efficiency of saccadic inhibitory control. More specifically, the contribution of age-related changes in working-memory engagement was investigated. We manipulated the efficiency of inhibitory oculomotor control in antisaccade tasks by using fixation-offset conditions, which are supposed to affect inhibitory demands, and by adding increasing working-memory loads to the antisaccade task.

Language and action control: the acquisition of action goals in early childhood.

This study examined the role of verbal labeling in 4-year-old children's acquisition of action-effect learning. The acquisition of action-effect associations was tested by having children first perform a two-choice key-pressing task in which each key press was followed by an effect (i.e.

Age-related changes in antisaccade task performance: inhibitory control or working-memory engagement?

In antisaccade tasks, subjects are required to generate a saccade in the direction opposite to the location of a sudden-onset target stimulus. Compared to young adults, older adults tend to make more reflex-like eye movements towards the target, and/or show longer saccadic onset latencies on correct direct antisaccades. To better understand the nature of these effects of aging on antisaccade performance, we examined the role of age-related deficiencies in inhibitory control vis-a-vis age changes in the engagement of working memory.

Development of the acquisition and control of action-effect associations.

Voluntary action is anticipatory and, hence, must depend on associations between actions and their perceivable effects. We studied the acquisition of action-effect associations in 4-5-vs. 7-year-old children.