Abstract
The capacity to sequence information is central to human performance. Sequencing ability forms the foundation stone for higher order cognition related to language and goal-directed planning. Information related to the order of items, their timing, chunking and hierarchical organization are important aspects in sequencing. Past research on sequencing has emphasized two distinct and independent dichotomies: implicit vs. explicit and goal-directed vs. habits. We propose a theoretical framework unifying these two streams. Our proposal relies on brain's ability to implicitly extract statistical regularities from the stream of stimuli and with attentional engagement organizing sequences explicitly and hierarchically. Similarly, sequences that need to be assembled purposively to accomplish a goal require engagement of attentional processes. With repetition, these goal-directed plans become habits with concomitant disengagement of attention. Thus, attention and awareness play a crucial role in the implicit-to-explicit transition as well as in how goal-directed plans become automatic habits. Cortico-subcortical loops basal ganglia-frontal cortex and hippocampus-frontal cortex loops mediate the transition process. We show how the computational principles of model-free and model-based learning paradigms, along with a pivotal role for attention and awareness, offer a unifying framework for these two dichotomies. Based on this framework, we make testable predictions related to the potential influence of response-to-stimulus interval (RSI) on developing awareness in implicit learning tasks.
Highlights
Cognitive Sequencing can be viewed as the ability to perceive, represent and execute a set of actions that follow a particular order
We propose that response-to-stimulus interval (RSI) [or more generally, inter-stimulus interval (ISI)] plays a key role in serial reaction time (SRT) experiments
On the other hand smaller RSIs do not allow the subject to form an explicit model and as is well known from the literature of serial reaction time experiments, subjects do remain sensitive to the underlying sequential regularities (Robertson, 2007). This sort of implicit learning can be explained with temporal difference (TD) learning, where the error signal leads to an adjustment in action selection keeping the general habitual control the same
Summary
Reviewed by: Rainer Schwarting, University of Marburg, Germany Christopher Conway, Georgia State University, USA. Sequences that need to be assembled purposively to accomplish a goal require engagement of attentional processes With repetition, these goal-directed plans become habits with concomitant disengagement of attention. Attention and awareness play a crucial role in the implicit-to-explicit transition as well as in how goal-directed plans become automatic habits. We show how the computational principles of model-free and model-based learning paradigms, along with a pivotal role for attention and awareness, offer a unifying framework for these two dichotomies. Based on this framework, we make testable predictions related to the potential influence of response-to-stimulus interval (RSI) on developing awareness in implicit learning tasks
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