This study presents three of the many strategies that pupils can use, in order to learn vocabulary. The aim of this essay is to study the combination of three strategies of learning and three methods of teaching, and compare the three different combinations in order to find out which one of them is the most efficient for pupils who learn new vocabulary. The three strategies are visual, auditory and kinesthetic strategies.               This is a pilot study that takes place in a group of students that study Spanish as a foreign language in a Swedish school. Each combination of strategy and method is tested on the group of pupils and thereafter evaluated in a semi-structured, qualitative way that consists of a questionnaire that the students fill in after each combination has been tested.               The results of the study show that, according to the pupils, the visual and the kinesthetic strategies are the most efficient ones for the pupils that participated in the study, whereas the results of the tests that were conducted show that the visual strategy was the most efficient one. The study also concludes that every student needs to find their individual strategy to learn vocabulary in a foreign language.

abstract: Watanabe, Náñez, and Sasaki (2001) introduced a phenomenon they named “task-irrelevant perceptual learning” in which near-threshold stimuli that are not essential to a given task can be associatively learned when consistently and concurrently paired with the focal task. The present study employs a visual paired-shapes recognition task, using colored polygon targets as salient attended focal stimuli, with the goal of comparing the increases in perceptual sensitivity observed when near-threshold stimuli are temporally paired in varying manners with focal targets. Experiment 1 separated and compared the target-acquisition and target-recognition phases and revealed that sensitivity improved most when the near-threshold motion stimuli were paired with the focal target-acquisition phase. The parameters of sensitivity improvement were motion detection, critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT), and letter-orientation decoding. Experiment 2 tested perceptual learning of near-threshold stimuli when they were offset from the focal stimuli presentation by ±350 ms. Performance improvements in motion detection, CFFT, and decoding were significantly greater for the group in which near-threshold motion was presented after the focal target. Experiment 3 showed that participants with reading difficulties who were exposed to focal target-acquisition training improved in sensitivity in all visual measures. Experiment 4 tested whether near-threshold stimulus learning occurred cross-modally with auditory stimuli and served as an active control for the first, second, and third experiments. Here, a tone was paired with all focal stimuli, but the tone was 1 Hz higher or lower when paired with the targeted focal stimuli associated with recognition. In Experiment 4, there was no improvement in visual sensitivity, but there was significant improvement in tone discrimination. Thus, this study, as a whole, confirms that pairing near-threshold stimuli with focal stimuli can improve performance in just tone discrimination, or in motion detection, CFFT, and letter decoding. Findings further support the thesis that the act of trying to remember a focal target also elicited greater associative learning of correlated near-threshold stimulus than the act of recognizing a target. Finally, these findings support that we have developed a visual learning paradigm that may potentially mitigate some of the visual deficits that are often experienced by the reading disabled. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2016

A warfighter's situation awareness is vital to their survival and lethality on the battlefield. Situation awareness, achieved through audition, allows the warfighter to quickly and accurately locate the position of fellow warfighters and potential threats. However, hearing loss, acoustic trauma, or the use of hearing protection can diminish this vital ability to locate sounds in the environment accurately. The introduction of electronically modulated hearing protection and enhancement devices (HPED) is an attempt to improve auditory situation awareness for the warfighter. Currently, however, there are no auditory fitness-for-duty measures that allow an warfighter, commander, or medical personnel to assess localization performance in the open-ear or with hearing protection. Such an assessment is important for pre-placement of a warfighter into a hearing critical job and also as a readiness metric prior-to and during a deployment. The ability to measure performance with a hearing protector will also assist warfighters in selecting protection that will afford maximum performance. This study examined a set of auditory fitness for duty (AFFD) test/stimulus combinations designed to quantify horizontal localization performance. Three listening conditions were used throughout the study; they included an open-ear condition as well as in-the- ear HPED and over-the-ear HPED. The Peltor Com-Tac IITM was used as the over-the- ear HPED and the Etymotic EB15 BlastPLGTM was used as the in-the-ear HPED. Stimuli consisted of filtered pink-noise that differed in both duration and frequency. Frequencies ranged from 500-1000 Hz (low) and 3000-6000 Hz (high) and durations included 300 ms (short) and 3 seconds (long). Stimuli were presented at 60 and 70 dB SPL. AFFD measures were specifically designed to measure current performance or to predict performance after training. Measures of current performance include an accuracy test measured in four quadrants (Left-Front, Right-Front, Left-Rear, and Right- Rear) and a front-back confusion test (FBCT). Accuracy within each quadrant was reduced to a mean absolute error, in degrees, for stimuli presented at 30 deg and 60 deg from the medial plane. FBCT consisted of a percent correct for stimuli presented at 0 deg and 180deg. Measures of post-training performance include an inter-aural cues test and a front-back difference test FBDT. The IACT and FBDT required participants to identify if two sequential stimuli were presented from the same or different locations. The IACT was tested in the left-front and right-front quadrants (for stimuli at 30 deg and 60 deg) and the FBCT was tested with stimuli at 0 deg and 180 deg These tests also provided a percent. Results show that the high-frequency long-duration (H-Long) stimuli predicted current localization performance well, for all listening conditions. Other AFFD test/stimulus combinations were also found to predict performance for a given listening condition, but not for all conditions. AFFD measures designed to predict post-training performance did not show any AFFD test/stimuli combinations that worked for all listening conditions. There were some combinations that worked for a given listening condition but not all conditions. A further analysis of the data showed that the limited number and types of HPEDs used may have confounded these results. Passive hearing protectors as well as HPEDs are known to disturb the spectral and temporal auditory cues that allow for accurate localization. While these cues are disturbed they are often still present in the signal heard by the listener. With training/use of a hearing protector, auditory learning may occur that allows these cues to be used again to accurately locate a sound source. Auditory learning was assessed by providing HPED training/use to novice hearing protection users. Pre and post-training testing was performed with the open-ear, in-the-ear HPED, and over-the-ear HPED. Training was provided for only one type of HPED. Results indicate that auditory learning occurred for the training HPED only. There was no crossover of auditory learning to the non-training protector. Other measures of auditory learning included a subjective confidence rating of the HPED and a measure of response time for the localization task. Results showed that confidence increased for the HPED that was used in training. However, no changes in response time were found for any listening condition. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that AFFD measures continue to be developed for implementation as pre-placement, HPED selection, return-to-duty, and readiness metrics for U.S. military personnel. It is also recommended that objective and subjective measures of hearing protection performance consider the effect of auditory learning. The rating or ranking of HPEDs by novice users of such a device, without adequate training/use to allow for auditory learning, should be weighed carefully. / Ph. D.

A integração audiovisual é capaz de melhorar a performance e a aprendizagem unissensorial. Esta integração ocorre mesmo quando uma das informações sensoriais não é consciente ao indivíduo, e.g. informação semântica auditiva pode impactar percepção visual inconsciente. No âmbito da percepção visual não consciente, o fluxo da informação fica restrito ao início do processamento cortical, não alcançando áreas de alta ordem, como a rede parietal-frontal. Considerando que as interações multissensoriais no córtex podem ocorrer desde estágios iniciais do processamento, levantamos a hipótese que a apresentação de estímulos visuais não conscientes pode beneficiar a aprendizagem auditiva de percepção de notas musicais. Neste estudo, testamos sujeitos em um paradigma de aprendizagem auditiva. Os indivíduos tinham como tarefa identificar seis notas diferentes separadas por 50 cents, ou ¼ de tom entre si. Os grupos foram divididos de acordo com o treinamento: auditivo (A), Auditivo + visual não consciente congruente (AV), e Auditivo + visual não consciente incongruente (AVi). Eles passaram por testes pré- e pós-treinamento de escolha forçada dentre seis alternativas somente com informação auditiva. Registramos dados de Eletroencefalografia (EEG) ao longo do experimento. A performance foi calculada por meio do Desvio Médio Absoluto das respostas com relação às notas corretas. Resultados comportamentais mostraram que o grupo AV não somente teve uma melhor performance durante o treinamento, quando a informação visual não consciente estava presente, como também apresentou um maior efeito do treinamento (melhora de pré- para pós-treinamento). Ambos os controles não diferiram entre si. Também mostramos que estes efeitos são devidos às notas da extremidade da escala. Os resultados de EEG mostram que a banda theta tem um papel fundamental na melhora da performance através do aumento da sincronização em áreas centrais e temporais, e da conectividade funcional entre córtices visuais e auditivos. Estes resultados são uma demonstração que asinterações multissensoriais ocorridas sem consciente são fortes o suficiente para aumentar a aprendizagem auditiva. Concluimos também que a conectividade funcional entre áreas corticais de processamento inicial aumenta depois de poucos minutos de treinamento. Além disso, esta tese levanta novas possibilidades para protocolos de aprendizagem perceptual auditiva, especialmente aqueles aplicado para aprendizagem de reconhecimento de notas musicais / Audiovisual integration may improve unisensory perceptual performance and learning. Interestingly, this integration may occur even when one of the sensory modalities is not conscious to the subject, e.g., semantic auditory information may impact nonconscious visual perception. Studies have shown that the flow of nonconscious visual information is mostly restricted to early cortical processing, without reaching higher-order areas, such as the parieto-frontal network. Thus, because multisensory cortical interactions may already occur in early stages of processing, we hypothesized that nonconscious visual stimulation without semantic information might facilitate auditory pitch learning. In this study we used a pitch learning paradigm, in which individuals had to identify six pitches in a scale with constant intervals of 50 cents. Subjects were assigned to one of three training groups: the test group (Auditory + congruent unconscious visual, AV), and two control groups (Auditory only, A, and Auditory + incongruent unconscious visual, AVi). Auditory-only tests were done before and after training in all groups. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded throughout the experiment. Results show that the test group (AV, with congruent nonconscious visual stimuli) performed better during the training, and showed a greater improvement from pre- to post-test. Control groups did not differ from one another. Changes in the AV group were mainly due to performances in the first and last pitches of the scale. We also observed consistent EEG patterns associated with this performance improvement in the AV group, especially higher theta-band synchronization among central and temporal areas, and stronger theta-band functional connectivity between visual and auditory cortices. Therefore, we show that nonconscious multisensory interactions are powerful enough to boost auditory perceptual learning, and that increased functional connectivity between early visual and auditory cortices after training might play a role in this effect. Moreover, weprovide a methodological contribution for future studies on auditory perceptual learning, particularly those applied to relative and absolute pitch training

This descriptive study utilizes methods and materials not found in traditional high school computer applications classes. Four classes were involved in this preliminary descriptive study. Seventy students in periods four, six, and seven were tested to determine their learning style preference. The emphasis for style was based on one of three perceptual responses: auditory, visual, and emotive. Third period received the teacher's traditional instruction for computer applications. Fourth period received no special treatment other than being tested for and made aware of learning styles. Students tested in the sixth and seventh periods were either individually assigned or allowed to choose a treatment that differed from the normal classroom instruction. Data included student assignments, teacher made tests, and teacher observations. The results for the treated classes showed greater consistency in assignments completed and higher test scores for treated students.