Implicit motor sequence learning is not purely perceptual

• Published in: Memory & cognition Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 561 - 572
• Main Author: WILLINGHAM, D. B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Austin, TX Psychonomic Society 01.05.1999; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Experiments; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Hypotheses; Learning; Learning - physiology; Learning. Memory; Male; Motor ability; Motor Skills; Perception - physiology; Perceptions; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Reaction Time; Set (Psychology); Human; Acquisition process; Transfer; Perception; Cognition; Implicit learning; Sequence; Experimental study; Motor learning; Motricity
• ISSN: 0090-502X; 1532-5946
• DOI: 10.3758/BF03211549

Many reports have indicated that implicit learning of sequences in a choice response time task is primarily perceptual; subjects learn the sequence of stimuli rather than the sequence of motor responses. Three experiments tested whether implicit motor sequence learning could be purely perceptual: no support was found for that hypothesis. Subjects who merely watched stimuli did not learn the sequence implicitly (Experiment 1), and sequence learning transferred robustly to a different set of stimulus cues (Experiment 2). In the final experiment, the stimulus-response mapping was changed at transfer so that one group of subjects pushed the same sequence of keys but saw new stimuli, whereas another group pushed a different sequence of keys but saw the same stimuli. Transfer to the new mapping was shown only if the motor sequence was kept constant, not the perceptual sequence. It is proposed that subjects learn a sequence of response locations in this and similar tasks.