Home // COGNITIVE 2015, The Seventh International Conference on Advanced Cognitive Technologies and Applications // View article
Authors:
Kazuhisa Miwa
Kazuaki Kojima
Hitoshi Terai
Keywords: cognitive disuse atrophy; performance-orienged activities; learning-orienged activities
Abstract:
The term disuse atrophy is generally used for physical atrophy such as muscle wasting. When muscles are no longer used, they slowly weaken. This weakening, or atrophy, can also occur from continuous physical support that leads to a minimal use of the body. We advance the idea that disuse atrophy occurs not only in the physical realm but also in cognitive ability. We investigate why cognitive disuse atrophy occurs. Specifically, we examine the learning activities inhibition hypothesis, which posits that cognitive disuse atrophy occurs because continuous use of support systems provides cognitive shortcuts for performing activities and inhibits learning-oriented activities. To investigate this hypothesis, two experiments were performed in which the participants played Reversi games. Both Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that the participants’ winning rates were highest when they were given a higher level of support, and their decision times for determining each move were shortest in the training phase. Experiment 2 also indicated that participants’ post-test scores (measured as learning gains) were lower when they were given higher levels of support. These results confirmed that a higher level of support promotes performance-oriented activities, but inhibits learning-oriented activities when engaging in training, supporting the learning activities inhibition hypothesis.
Pages: 66 to 71
Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015
Publication date: March 22, 2015
Published in: conference
ISSN: 2308-4197
ISBN: 978-1-61208-390-2
Location: Nice, France
Dates: from March 22, 2015 to March 27, 2015