title: Unconsciously learning task-irrelevant perceptual sequences.
abstract: We demonstrated unconscious learning of task-irrelevant perceptual regularities in a Serial Reaction Time (SRT) task in both visual and auditory domains. Participants were required to respond to different letters ('F' or 'J', experiment 1) or syllables ('can' or 'you', experiment 2) which occurred in random order. Unbeknownst to participants, the color (red, green, blue or yellow) of the two letters or the tone (1-4) of the syllables varied according to certain rules. Reaction times indicated that people indeed learnt both the color and tonal regularities indicating that task-irrelevant sequence structure can be learned perceptually. In a subsequent prediction test of knowledge of the color or tonal cues using subjective measures, we showed that people could acquire task irrelevant knowledge unconsciously.
authors: School of Psychology and Cognitive Science and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Xiuyan
authors: X
authors: Guo
authors: Shan
authors: S
authors: Jiang
authors: Hongyi
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Zhu
authors: Jinghua
authors: J
authors: Tang
authors: Zoltan
authors: Z
authors: Dienes
authors: Zhiliang
authors: Z
authors: Yang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011930:Reaction Time; D012691:Serial Learning; D014796:Visual Perception