title: Re-examining the role of context in implicit sequence learning.
abstract: Implicit sequence learning typically develops gradually, is often expressed quite rigidly, and is heavily reliant on contextual features. Recently we reported results pointing to the role of context-specific processes in the acquisition and expression of implicit sequence knowledge (D'Angelo, Milliken, Jiménez, & Lupiáñez, 2013). Here we examined further the role of context in learning of first-order conditional sequences, and whether context also plays a role in learning second-order conditional structures. Across five experiments we show that the role of context in first-order conditional sequences may not be as clear as we had previously reported, while at the same time we find evidence for the role of context in learning second-order conditional sequences. Together the results suggest that temporal context may be sufficient to learn complementary first-order conditional sequences, but that additional contextual information is necessary to concurrently learn higher-order sequential structures.
authors.affiliation: McMaster University, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, Canada. Electronic address: mdangelo@research.baycrest.org.
authors.forename: Maria C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: D'Angelo
authors.affiliation: McMaster University, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, Canada. Electronic address: millike@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Milliken
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Facultad de Psicología, Spain. Electronic address: luis.jimenez@usc.es.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Granada, Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Centro de Investigación Mente, Cerebro y Comportamiento (CIMCYC), Spain. Electronic address: jlupiane@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lupiáñez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Context-specificity; Episodic memory; Implicit learning; Sequence learning