Faculty of 1000 Biology | Long-term retention explained by a model of short-term learning in the adaptive control of reaching.

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Long-term retention explained by a model of short-term learning in the adaptive control of reaching.
Joiner WM, Smith MA
J Neurophysiol 2008 Nov 100(5):2948-55 [abstract on PubMed] [citations on Google Scholar] [related articles] [full text] [order article]

Selected by | Reza Shadmehr
Evaluated 20 Apr 2009
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Reza Shadmehr
Johns Hopkins University, United States of America
Neuroscience

New Finding

One might imagine that the amount that you retain from a learning episode depends on the amount that you learned. However, this paper shows that, if a motor learning episode is decomposed into two memory states, one a fast state that learns quickly but has poor retention, and the other a slow state that learns slowly but has better retention, then performance on a test of retention depends only on the amount that was learned by the slow state.

It is a long-standing puzzle that, when one trains for a longer time on a task, the performance does not appear to change significantly, yet there is often a dramatic improvement in retention. This paper explains that observation by relying on the concept of a two state memory model. It shows that retention is a constant fraction of the memory in its slow state, with little or no contribution from the fast state.

Competing interests: None declared
Evaluated 20 Apr 2009

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1) To cite all the evaluations for this article:

Faculty of 1000 Biology: evaluations for Joiner WM & Smith MA J Neurophysiol 2008 Nov 100 (5) :2948-55 http://f1000biology.com/article/id/1159115/evaluation

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Reza Shadmehr: Faculty of 1000 Biology, 20 Apr 2009 http://f1000biology.com/article/id/1159115/evaluation