The role of response selection in sequence learning.
We investigated the role of response selection in sequence learning in the serial reaction time (SRT) task, by manipulating stimulus-response compatibility. Under conditions in which other types of learning, like perceptual, response-based, and response-effect learning, were unaffected, sequence learning was better with an incompatible than with a compatible stimulus-response mapping. Stimulus discriminability, on the other hand, had no influence on the amount of sequence learning. This indicates that the compatibility effects cannot be accounted for by a different level of task difficulty. Relating our results to the dimensional overlap model (Kornblum, Hasbroucq, & Osman, 1990), which assumes that incompatible stimulus-response mappings require more controlled response selection than do compatible stimulus-response mapping, we suggest that sequence learning in the SRT task is particularly effective when response selection occurs in a controlled way.
Deroost
Natacha
N
Department of Cognitive and Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Natacha.Deroost@vub.ac.be
Soetens
Eric
E
D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D011930:Reaction Time