The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) adult hermaphrodite has 302 invariant neurons and is suited for cellular and molecular studies on complex behaviors including learning and memory. Here, we have developed protocols for classical conditioning of worms with 1-propanol, as a conditioned stimulus (CS), and hydrochloride (HCl) (pH 4.0), as an unconditioned stimulus (US). Before the co...

We developed a new protocol that induces long-term adaptation of horizontal optokinetic response (HOKR) eye movement by hours of spaced training and examined the role of protein synthesis in the cerebellar cortex in the formation of memory of adaptation. Mice were trained to view 800 cycles of screen oscillation either by 1 h of massed training or by 2.5 h to 8 d of training with 0.5 h to 1 d s...

Due to the importance of training, many scientists have studied effective training schedules, and they have compared distributed practice schedules to massed practice schedules. Most of the results consistently show that a distributed practice schedule outperforms a massed practice schedule in a retention test, because of the spacing effect in human memory. This result may lead new scientists w...

Previous studies investigating the effects of spacing on vocabulary learning have primarily focused single words. There is limited research how distributed practice affects phrasal lexicon. The present study addresses this gap by focusing collocations. In a pretest-treatment-delayed-posttest design, two controlled quasi-experiments (N = 55 and N 50) were conducted in order to evaluate schedules...

Several bodies of research have found different results with regard to presentation timing, categorization, and generalization. Both presenting instances at the same time (simultaneous) and presenting instances apart in time (spacing) have been shown to facilitate generalization. In this study, we resolved these results by examining simultaneous, massed, and spaced presentations in 2-year-old c...

Statistical learning (SL) refers to the ability to extract statistical regularities from the environment. Many researchers believe that SL arises as a consequence of the way that information is stored and accessed in memory (Thiessen, Kronstein, & Hufnagle, 2013). Accordingly, manipulations that influence memory should have similar effects in SL experiments. In the current study, participants w...