Trajectory effects in a novel serial reaction time task

IEEE Conference on Development and Learning / EpiRob 2014, 2014

The serial reaction time (SRT) task measures learning of a repeating stimulus sequence as speed up in keypresses, and is used to study implicit and motor learning research which aim to explain complex skill acquisition (e.g., learning to type). However, complex skills involve continuous, temporallyextended movements that are not fully measured in the discrete button presses of the SRT task. Using a movement adaptation of the SRT task in which spatial locations are both stimuli and response options, participants were trained to move the cursor to a continuous sequence of stimuli. Elsewhere we replicated [1] with the trajectory SRT paradigm . The current study extends it to the problem of learning complex actions, composed of recurring short sequences of movements that may be rearranged like words. Reaction time and trajectory deflection analyses show that subjects show within-word improvements relative to unpredictable betweenword transitions, suggesting that participants learn to segment the sequence according to the statistics of the input.

Cognitive science, 2018

Sequential action makes up the bulk of human daily activity, and yet much remains unknown about how people learn such actions. In one motor learning paradigm, the serial reaction time (SRT) task, people are taught a consistent sequence of button presses by cueing them with the next target response. However, the SRT task only records keypress response times to a cued target, and thus it cannot reveal the full time-course of motion, including predictive movements. This paper describes a mouse movement trajectory SRT task in which the cursor must be moved to a cued location. We replicated keypress SRT results, but also found that predictive movement-before the next cue appears-increased during the experiment. Moreover, trajectory analyses revealed that people developed a centering strategy under uncertainty. In a second experiment, we made prediction explicit, no longer cueing targets. Thus, participants had to explore the response alternatives and learn via reinforcement, receiving re...

Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 2012

sequence learning, implicit learning, serial reaction time task over the last 20 years researchers have used the serial reaction time (srt) task to investigate the nature of spatial sequence learning. they have used the task to identify the locus of spatial sequence learning, identify situations that enhance and those that impair learning, and identify the important cognitive processes that facilitate this type of learning. Although controversies remain, the srt task has been integral in enhancing our understanding of implicit sequence learning. it is important, however, to ask what, if anything, the discoveries made using the srt task tell us about implicit learning more generally. this review analyzes the state of the current spatial srt sequence learning literature highlighting the stimulus-response rule hypothesis of sequence learning which we believe provides a unifying account of discrepant srt data. it also challenges researchers to use the vast body of knowledge acquired with the srt task to understand other implicit learning literatures too often ignored in the context of this particular task. this broad perspective will make it possible to identify congruencies among data acquired using various different tasks that will allow us to generalize about the nature of implicit learning.

2020

The ability to chain together sequences of information and action is pivotal to everyday acquisition of skills. Despite extensive research of sequence learning, little focus has been given to individual performance in standard tasks measuring this capability. As a result, little is known regarding what knowledge participants gain during such tasks. In the current work, an individualand item-based analysis is performed of eye movements that occur during a spatial sequence learning task and reflect anticipation of upcoming target locations. We show that the knowledge participants acquire during the task is tightly linked to a-priori response biases they bring into the experiment. Results suggest that a-priori biases may be a sizeable influence on performance in learning experiments, that tends to be overlooked. Implications for designing and reading studies of sequence learning are discussed.

Advances in cognitive psychology / University of Finance and Management in Warsaw, 2012

Experimental Brain Research, 2008

In the serial reaction time task (SRTT), a sequence of visuo-spatial cues instructs subjects to perform a sequence of movements which follow a repeating pattern. Though motor responses are known to support implicit sequence learning in this task, the goal of the present experiments is to determine whether observation of the sequence of cues alone can also yield evidence of implicit sequence learning. This question has been difficult to answer because in previous research, performance improvements which appeared to be due to implicit perceptual sequence learning could also be due to spontaneous increases in explicit knowledge of the sequence. The present experiments use probabilistic sequences to prevent the spontaneous development of explicit awareness. They include a training phase, during which half of the subjects observe and the other half respond, followed by a transfer phase in which everyone responds. Results show that observation alone can support sequence learning, which translates at transfer into equivalent performance as that of a group who made motor responses during training. However, perceptual learning or its expression is sensitive to changes in target colors, and its expression is impaired by concurrent explicit search. Motor-response based learning is not affected by these manipulations. Thus, observation alone can support implicit sequence learning, even of higher order probabilistic sequences. However, perceptual learning can be prevented or concealed by variations of stimuli or task demands.

Proceedings of the …, 1998

Experimental Brain Research, 2009

With a series of novel arm-reaching tasks, we have shown that visuomotor sequence learning encompasses the acquisition of the order of sequence elements, and the ability to combine them in a single, skilled behavior. The Wrst component, which is mostly declarative, is reXected by changes in movement onset time (OT); the second, which occurs without subject's awareness, is measured by changes in kinematic variables, including movement time (MT). Key-press-based serial reaction time tasks (SRTT) have been used to investigate sequence learning and results interpreted as indicative of the implicit acquisition of the sequence order. One limitation to SRT studies, however, is that only one measure is used, the response time, the sum of OT and MT: this makes interpretation of which component is learnt diYcult and disambiguation of implicit and explicit processes problematic. Here, we used an arm-reaching version of SRTT to propose a novel interpretation of such results. The pattern of response time changes we obtained was similar to the key-pressbased tasks. However, there were signiWcant diVerences between OT and MT, suggesting that both partial learning of the sequence order and skill improvement took place. Further analyses indicated that the learning of the sequence order might not occur without subjects' awareness.

Cognitive Science, 2016

Learning sequential actions is an essential ability, for most daily activities are sequential. We modify the trajectory serial reaction time (SRT) task, used to teach people a consistent sequence of mouse movements by cueing them with the next target response. We introduce a reinforcement learning (RL) version of the paradigm in which no cue appears. Instead, learners must explore response alternatives, receiving penalties when incorrect and rewards when correct. Learners are not told that they will learn a single deterministic sequence of responses, nor that it will repeat (nor how often), nor how long it is. Performance was bimodal: half performed poorly, and yet half performed remarkably well, acquiring the full 10-item sequence within 10 repetitions. We compare these groups’ detailed results in this RL task with a cued trajectory SRT task, finding both similarities and discrepancies. Human learners outperform three standard RL models and have different patterns of errors.

Psyche, 1995

Studies of implicit learning have shown that individuals exposed to a rulegoverned environment often learn to exploit 'rules' which describe the structural relationship between environmental events. While some authors have interpreted such demonstrations as evidence for functionally separate implicit learning systems, others have argued that the observed changes in performance result from explicit knowledge which has been inadequately assessed. In this paper we illustrate this issue by considering one commonly used implicit learning task, the Serial reaction time task, and outline what we see as an important problem associated with each of the commonly used methods used to assess explicit knowledge. This is that each measure requires a form of response which is dependent on the subjects having some knowledge of the serial-order of the sequence. We argue that such methods, or more specifically their analyses, seriously underestimate other sources of knowledge, which may be available to subjects during their performance of the SRT task. In support of this argument we demonstrate that subjects' serial-order knowledge can, in principle, be independent of subjects' knowledge of the statistical structure of the sequence, and we propose an alternative method for analysing performance on the Generate task which avoids this problem.