Topic: subject-level learning dynamics

Analysis of behavioral data usually averages responses across subjects and/or across trials. However, this approach obscures the actual dynamics of learning, which can occur within few trials and differ between subjects. For instance, reexamination of previous data (Uengoer and Lachnit, 2006) reveals that during learning subjects do not change their responses gradually, but abruptly (Fig. A). These “jumps” occur at different trials for each subject and averaging therefore paints a misleading picture of gradual learning curves. These data are not easily accounted for with simple associative lea