title: Chunking by colors: assessing discrete learning in a continuous serial reaction-time task.
abstract: Chunk learning (the process by which a sequence is learned and retrieved from memory in smaller, decomposed units of information) has been postulated as the main learning mechanism underlying sequence learning (Perruchet & Pacton, 2006). However, the evidence for chunk formation has been elusive in the continuous serial reaction-time task, whereas other continuous, statistical processes of learning account well for the results observed in this task. This article proposes a new index to capture segmentation in learning, based on the variance of responding to different parts of a sequence. We assess the validity of this measure by comparing performance in a control group with that of another group in which color codes were used to induce a uniform segmentation. Results showed that evidence of chunking was obtained when the color codes were consistently coupled to responses, but that chunking was not maintained after the colors were removed.
authors.affiliation: University of Santiago, Spain. luis.jimenez@usc.es
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.forename: Amavia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pasquali
authors.forename: Elger
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abrahamse
authors.forename: Willem
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Verwey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology