Learning of event sequences is based on response-effect learning: further evidence from a serial reaction task.
Four experiments provide converging evidence that serial learning in a serial reaction task is based on response-effect learning, mediated by the learning of the relations between a response and the stimulus that follows it. In Experiment 1, the authors varied the stimulus sequence and the response-stimulus relations while holding the response sequence constant. Learning effects depended on the complexity of the response-stimulus relations but not on the stimulus-stimulus relations. In Experiment 2, transfer of serial learning from 1 stimulus sequence to another was only found when both sequences had identical response-stimulus relations. In Experiment 3, a variation of the stimulus sequence alone had no effect on serial learning, whereas in Experiment 4 learning effects increased when the response-stimulus relations but not the stimulus-stimulus relations were simplified. These findings suggest that serial learning is based on mechanisms of voluntary action control.
Ziessler
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M
Department of Psychology, Humboldt University at Berlin, Germany. michael.ziessler@sunderland.ac.uk
Nattkemper
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D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D005795:Generalization, Stimulus; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012691:Serial Learning; D014163:Transfer, Psychology