| |
Abstract:
A variation of Howard & Howard's (1997) alternating
serial reaction time task was used to investigate transfer of
implicit sequence learning across a response hand shift. A target
event was displayed at one of three CRT locations on each trial and
participants responded by pressing a corresponding key using three
fingers of a single hand. Predictable (pattern) events occurred on
every third trial between two successive random ones. Participants
were tested for three blocks on each of two successive days,
responding with different hands on the two days. Reaction time (RT)
decreased over the six experimental blocks despite the hand change,
but no reliable difference in RT occurred between the pattern and
random trials. However, responses on pattern trials were
significantly more accurate than random on each of the six blocks
indicating that people learned the third-order sequential structure
of the pattern trials. Since learning transferred across hands,
these findings support previous arguments that learning in the
serial learning task involves abstract as well as effector-specific
motor representations.
|
