Independent learning of spatial and nonspatial sequences.

Abstract

A small number of studies have examined whether learning the structures of two uncorrelated sequences can proceed independently of one another. Limitations in those studies have left their results open to alternative explanations. The present study addressed the limitations. The visuospatial serial reaction time task, initially introduced by Mayr (1996), was used to examine whether learning the structure of a sequence of visuospatial target locations (spatial sequence) and learning the structure of a sequence of target identities and responses (nonspatial sequence) can proceed independently of one another. Employing a dual-sequence/single-sequence paradigm, learning a nonspatial sequence did not affect learning a spatial sequence. This suggests that spatial sequence learning and nonspatial sequence learning can proceed independently of one another. (PsycINFO Database Record