Patterns, chunks, and hierarchies in serial reaction-time tasks (original) (raw)

Abstract

The impact of relational structures (i.e., the systematicity of relations between successive items) on incidental sequence learning was investigated in a serial reaction-time (SRT) task while keeping constant the statistical structure. In order to assess the influence of relational structures in stimulus and response sequences separately, the strength of relational patterns in sequences of digits as stimuli and of keystrokes as responses was orthogonally varied. In Exps. 1 and 2, the variation of relational patterns was mainly effective in the keystroke sequence. In Exp. 2, in addition to the variation of relational patterns, the presentation of stimuli was delayed at serial positions that were incongruent with the relational structure. The results show that these incongruent pauses reduced the learning of strongly structured sequences of keystrokes but improved the learning of weakly structured sequences. Experiment 3 suggests that even higher-order relations between elementary patterns are utilized to accelerate responses. The data are interpreted as evidence for the impact of relational patterns, in addition to statistical redundancies, on the formation of chunks. Reasons are discussed for the finding that relational chunking was more pronounced in the keystroke than in the digit sequences.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Max-Planck-Institut für psychologische Forschung, Leopoldstr. 24, D-80802 München e-mail: iring.koch@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de, , , , , , DE
   Iring Koch
2. Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, D-97070, Würzburg, Germany e-mail: hoffmann@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de, , , , , , DE
   Joachim Hoffmann

Authors

1. Iring Koch
2. Joachim Hoffmann

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Received: 25 June 1998 / Accepted: 3 December 1998

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Koch, I., Hoffmann, J. Patterns, chunks, and hierarchies in serial reaction-time tasks.Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung 63, 22–35 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00008165

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• Issue date: March 2000
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00008165

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