Just Dance: Does Language Guide Action Learning? Data sets

In this dataset, you will find three files that were used in the study "Just Dance: Does Language Guide Action Learning?"; DATAPERF for the performance test results, DATAMEM for the memory test results and DATAMEANS the mean scores per participant for both tests, which is used in the code that compares the performance test to the memory test.A description of this study can be read below.<br>When learning something new, the presence of an accompanying novel verbal label can facilitate the learning process. This label advantage effect has been established in perception-based learning studies on objects, smells and tactile patterns. However, the effect of novel labels on how we learn to perceive <i>and</i> perform novel actions remains unexplored. This study investigates whether the presence of novel verbal labels during learning facilitates both the memorization and performance of novel actions. In a large-scale learning experiment, participants (n=297) learned four novel dance sequences in one of three learning conditions (novel verbal label, handshape label or no- label), after which they did a performance and a memory test. Unexpectedly, results showed that participants who received no accompanying labels during learning outperformed those who received novel verbal labels or handshape labels during learning, both in the memory and in the performance test. The results of this experiment, which indicate an absence of the label advantage effect for novel action learning, are not in alignment with those of previous learning studies on the label advantage effect. We argue that learning for action, i.e. to actually perform novel actions, may require different neural mechanisms or learning strategies than learning to perceptually categorize or discriminate novel concepts, which may impact the establishment of a label advantage effect. These unexpected findings raise questions about the nature of actions and the interplay between action learning and labelling (dis)advantages, opening up unchartered lines of research in these domains.<br>