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Abstract:
This study investigates whether sequence learning is
demonstrated in the oculomotor response modality on the serial
reaction time (RT) paradigm. The serial RT task assesses sequence
learning by testing if manual RTs decrease more to repeated
presentations of a 10-item sequence of stimuli than to stimuli in
random order. In the present study, college students are
administered blocks of random (R) and repeating sequences (S) in
the following order: Group 1: RRRRRRS, Groups 2 and 3: RSSRSRS.
Groups 1 and 2 look at the stimuli for the first 5 blocks and both
look and make manual responses for the last 2. Group 3 looks at the
stimuli and makes manual responses on all blocks. After being
probed for explicit recall, all groups are presented with a new
sequence and try to explicitly discover the sequence. Oculomotor
responses are recorded using a corneal reflection eye-tracking
system. We hypothesize that oculomotor RTs will decrease as the
sequence is learned (Experiment 1) and that sequence learning will
transfer from the oculomotor to the manual modality (Experiment 2).
In Experiment 3, we compare manual and oculomotor responses on
explicit and implicit blocks. Preliminary results replicate
previous findings for manual RTs and show a sequence learning
effect on oculomotor RTs. This investigation provides a means of
testing procedural learning in populations with motor difficulties
and elucidates mechanisms of procedural, implicit, and explicit
learning.
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