SRT Task Research Articles

Effects of Structured Physical Activity on Motor Fitness in Preschool Children.

The aim was to investigate the impact of a specific structured movement activities (SMA) program compared to free play activity (FRP) on the strength, speed, agility, coordination, and balance of motor fitness (MF) in 6-year-old boys and girls. A total of 53 children (24 boys, 29 girls) were randomly allocated to either the SMA group or the FRP group. Both group activities were administered three times a week over a 6-month period. MF variables were assessed before (pre-) and after (post-) using tests: the flamingo balance (FLA), the standing long jump (SLJ), plate tapping (PTT), the obstacle course backwards (OCB), and the shuttle run 4 × 5 m (SRT). At the post-test, the SMA program resulted in significant (p < 0.05) improvements in OCB, PTT, SLJ, and SRT tasks. For FRP, a noteworthy improvement was observed only in OCB (ES = 0.45, p < 0.05). An ANCOVA revealed a significant group × time interaction (F = 21.71-52.41, η2 = 0.258-0.512, p < 0.01) for OCB, PTT, and SRT, favoring SMA over FRP. The present findings suggest that SMA may be more effective than FRP when aiming to develop motor coordination, agility, and speed of movement in children.

Effect of transcranial static magnetic stimulation over unilateral or bilateral motor association cortex on performance of simple and choice reaction time tasks.

Transcranial static magnetic stimulation (tSMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that place a strong neodymium magnet on scalp to reduce cortical excitability. We have recently developed a new tSMS device with three magnets placed close to each other (triple tSMS) and confirmed that this new device can produce a stronger and broader static magnetic field than the conventional single tSMS. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the conventional single tSMS as well as triple tSMS over the unilateral or bilateral motor association cortex (MAC) on simple and choice reaction time (SRT and CRT) task performance. There were two experiments: one involved the conventional tSMS, and the other involved the triple tSMS. In both experiments, right-handed healthy participants received each of the following stimulations for 20 min on different days: tSMS over the unilateral (left) MAC, tSMS over the bilateral MAC, and sham stimulation. The center of the stimulation device was set at the premotor cortex. The participants performed SRT and CRT tasks before, immediately after, and 15 min after the stimulation (Pre, Post 0, and Post 15). We evaluated RT, standard deviation (SD) of RT, and accuracy (error rate). Simulation was also performed to determine the spatial distribution of magnetic field induced by tSMS over the bilateral MAC. The spatial distribution of induced magnetic field was centered around the PMd for both tSMS systems, and the magnetic field reached multiple regions of the MAC as well as the sensorimotor cortices for triple tSMS. SD of CRT was significantly larger at Post 0 as compared to Pre when triple tSMS was applied to the bilateral MAC. No significant findings were noted for the other conditions or variables. We found that single tSMS over the unilateral or bilateral MAC did not affect performance of RT tasks, whereas triple tSMS over the bilateral MAC but not over the unilateral MAC increased variability of CRT. Our finding suggests that RT task performance can be modulated using triple tSMS.

The posterior cerebellum and temporoparietal junction support explicit learning of social belief sequences.

This study tests the hypothesis that the posterior cerebellum is involved in social cognition by identifying and automatizing sequences of social actions. We applied a belief serial reaction time task (Belief SRT task), which requires mentalizing about two protagonists' beliefs about how many flowers they receive. The protagonists' beliefs could either be true or false depending on their orientation (true belief: oriented towards and directly observing the flowers; or false belief: oriented away and knowing only prior information about flowers). A Control SRT task was created by replacing protagonists and their beliefs with shapes and colors. Participants were explicitly told that there was a standard sequence related to the two protagonists' belief orientations (Belief SRT task) or the shapes' colors (Control SRT task). Both tasks included a Training phase where the standard sequence was repeated and a Test phase where this standard sequence was interrupted by random sequences. As hypothesized, compared with the Control SRT task, the Belief SRT task recruited the posterior cerebellar Crus II and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) more. Faster response times were correlated with less Crus II activation and with more TPJ activation, suggesting that the Crus II supported automatizing the belief sequence while the TPJ supported inferring the protagonists' beliefs. Also as hypothesized, compared with an implicit version of the Belief SRT task (i.e., participants did not know about the existence of sequences; Ma, Pu, et al., 2021b), the cerebellar Crus I &II was engaged less during initial training and automatic application of the sequence, and the cortical TPJ was activated more in processing random sequences.

New insights in implicit sequence learning of adults with traumatic brain injury: As measured by an ocular serial reaction time (O-SRT) task.

Objective: We investigated the effect of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on implicit sequence learning (ISL) and its relation with demographic, clinical, and working memory (WM) capacity using an eye-tracked variant of the standard serial reaction time (RT; SRT) task. Besides RT, this ocular SRT (O-SRT) task enables generation of correct anticipations (CA) and stucks, reflecting other critical aspects of ISL. Method: ISL was tested in 26 individuals with TBI and 28 healthy controls using the O-SRT task. Mixed analyses of variance were conducted to analyze RT and CA in three phases: learning, interference, and recovery from interference. The average number of stucks was compared with an independent-samples t test. Finally, Pearson correlation analyses of ISL with demographic, clinical, and WM capacity measures were performed. Results: Based on RT, ISL was impaired in the TBI group. However, CA demonstrated improved learning, but with deficits in the interference and recovery from interference phases. Stucks were more frequent in the TBI group, which affected RT and CA measures. Neither demographic nor clinical factors were associated with ISL. Verbal, but not spatial, WM capacity was impaired in the TBI group, and spatial WM capacity positively correlated with ISL in controls only. Conclusion: We suggest that the high TBI group stuck rate can be attributed to lack of initiative and/or conservative response bias associated with TBI, and view it as a main cause leading to deficits in ISL. Unlike controls, the TBI group could not muster their relatively preserved spatial WM capacity to support their ISL performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Persistent implicit motor learning alterations following a mild traumatic brain injury sustained during late adulthood

ABSTRACT Introduction: The neurocognitive outcomes of sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) during late adulthood are vastly understudied. In young, asymptomatic adults, mTBI-related synaptic plasticity alterations have been associated with persistent implicit motor sequence learning impairments outlasting the usual cognitive recovery period. The current study examined whether uncomplicated mTBI sustained during late adulthood could exert persistent deleterious consequences on implicit motor sequence learning. Method: Thirty participants (aged 50–70 years) who experienced an uncomplicated mTBI within 3 to 24 months of testing, and 40 age-, sex- and education-equivalent healthy controls performed an implicit serial reaction time task (SRT task). The SRT task consisted of 10 blocks of a repeating sequence embedded among 4 random blocks. Participants also completed a battery of standardized neuropsychological tests of attention, memory and executive functioning. Results: While both mTBI participants and controls showed significant implicit motor sequence learning effects, the mTBI group achieved a lower level of competence at performing the SRT task as evidenced by smaller gains in reaction times across the 10 training blocks of the repeating sequence. The time elapsed since the injury was unrelated to implicit motor learning effects. There was no evidence of a persistent effect of mTBI on any neuropsychological domain compared to controls. Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that a single mTBI sustained during older age may have persistent repercussions on training-dependent motor sequence learning capacity outlasting the recovery of mTBI symptoms and gold-standard neuropsychological tests performance.

Does hypnotic susceptibility influence information processing speed and motor cortical preparatory activity?

Responsiveness to suggestions while hypnotized is termed hypnotic susceptibility. An association between reaction time and hypnotic susceptibility has been demonstrated, but whether distinct changes in brain activity accompany this relationship remains unclear. We investigated the effect of hypnotic susceptibility on the speed of information processing and motor cortical preparatory activity. Twenty-one “low” (LowHS) and fifteen “high” (HighHS) hypnotically susceptible right-handed participants performed precued simple (SRT) and choice (CRT) reaction time key-press tasks under hypnotized and non-hypnotized conditions. Force and surface electromyography data were recorded from left and right index fingers. The contingent negative variation (CNV) was derived from electroencephalography data. Mean reaction time and premotor time was shorter in HighHS participants than LowHS participants for both simple and choice reaction time tasks. HighHS participants in the hypnotized state performed fewer errors than HighHS participants in the non-hypnotized state and LowHS participants in either state for the SRT task. HighHS participants made fewer errors overall than LowHS participants for the CRT task. Mean C3/C4 CNV amplitude was larger in HighHS than in LowHS participants. Furthermore, larger CNV amplitude was associated with shorter premotor time. Our findings indicate that shorter reaction time in the high hypnotically susceptible group is associated with a greater change in brain activity during motor preparation. One interpretation is that hypnotic susceptibility and neural mechanisms of arousal and selective attention are linked.

Age-related changes in TMS-based gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) modulation during a unimanual simple and choice reaction time task.

Age-related changes in TMS-based gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) modulation during a unimanual simple and choice reaction time task.

Association of Visual Tracking Metrics With Post-concussion Symptomatology.

Attention impairment may provide a cohesive neurobiological explanation for clusters of clinical symptoms that occur after a concussion; therefore, objective quantification of attention is needed. Visually tracking a moving target is an attention-dependent sensorimotor function, and eye movement can be recorded easily and objectively to quantify performance. Our previous work suggested the utility of gaze-target synchronization metrics of a predictive visual tracking task in concussion screening and recovery monitoring. Another objectively quantifiable performance measure frequently suggested for concussion screening is simple visuo-manual reaction time (simple reaction time, SRT). Here, we used visual tracking and SRT tasks to assess changes between pre- and within-2-week post-concussion performances and explore their relationships to post-concussion symptomatology. Athletes participating in organized competitive sports were recruited. Visual tracking and SRT records were collected from the recruited athlete pool as baseline measures over a 4-year period. When athletes experienced a concussion, they were re-assessed within 2 weeks of their injury. We present the data from a total of 29 concussed athletes. Post-concussion symptom burden was assessed with the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire and subscales of the Brain Injury Screening Questionnaire. Post-concussion changes in visual tracking and SRT performance were examined using a paired t-test. Correlations of changes in visual tracking and SRT performance to symptom burden were examined using Pearson's coefficients. Post-concussion changes in visual tracking performance were not consistent among the athletes. However, changes in several visual tracking metrics had moderate to strong correlations to symptom scales (r up to 0.68). On the other hand, while post-concussion SRT performance was reduced (p < 0.01), the changes in the performance metrics were not meaningfully correlated to symptomatology (r ≤ 0.33). Results suggest that visual tracking performance metrics reflect clinical symptoms when assessed within 2 weeks of concussion. Evaluation of concussion requires assessments in multiple domains because the clinical profiles are heterogeneous. While most individuals show recovery within a week of injury, others experience prolonged recovery periods. Visual tracking performance metrics may serve as a biomarker of debilitating symptoms of concussion implicating attention as a root cause of such pathologies.

Hyperoxia and Hypoxic Hypoxia Effects on Simple and Choice Reaction Times.

Effects of exposure to hyperoxia (PiO2 > 105 mmHg), normoxia (PiO2 95-105 mmHg) and hypoxia (PiO2 < 95 mmHg) on simple and choice reaction performance tasks were evaluated. Ten subjects performed simple and choice reaction time tests (SRT and CRT, respectively) at ground level for 40 min (20 min normoxic, 20 min hyperoxic, randomly assigned), 3048 m (10,000 ft) for 75 min (15 min hyperoxic, 60 min hypoxic), 4572 m (15,000 ft) for 60 min (15 min hyperoxic, 45 min hypoxic), and 6096 m (20,000 ft) for 35 min (15 min hyperoxic, 20 min hypoxic). SRT and CRT tests were also conducted at ground level 1 h after normoxic rest (recovery) to assess any recovery time effect on these psychomotor tasks. Total response time (TRT) significantly increased by 15 ms to 25 ms at all three altitudes for both the SRT and CRT tasks. At and below 4572 m, the performance changes were gradual over the duration of the exposures, whereas at 6096 m these changes were immediate. After 1 h, no performance decrement was measured. There was no statistical evidence that ground-level performance on these tasks was improved in hyperoxic vs. normoxic conditions. Results suggest mild decrements in reaction time due to hypoxia may occur as low as 3048 m (10,000 ft) while hyperoxia showed no positive effect on accuracy or reaction time at ground level or higher when performing simple and choice psychomotor reaction tasks.Dart T, Gallo M, Beer J, Fischer J, Morgan T, Pilmanis A. Hyperoxia and hypoxic hypoxia effects on simple and choice reaction times. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(12):1073-1080.

The impact of physical activity on motor preparation in young adults

Regular physical activity benefits brain health and function. Physical activity performed by young adults is declining. However, the influence of diminished physical activity on cognitive performance and motor preparation in young adults remains unclear. This study measured changes in behavior and brain activity during preparation and performance of simple (SRT) and choice (CRT) reaction time tasks in less and more physically active young adults. Electromyograms were obtained from left and right first dorsal interossei muscles. Midline and hemisphere-specific electroencephalograms were analyzed from frontal and central scalp regions in 11 less- and 11 more-active participants. Physical activity level was assessed by questionnaire (IPAQ). Reaction and premotor times were slower for SRT and CRT tasks in less active participants. No statistically significant difference in contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitude was present between groups. Hemisphere-specific CNV amplitude over frontal scalp regions was evident for both less and more active participants for right hand SRT, whereas only the more active group showed hemisphere-specific CNVs for left hand SRT. Decreased levels of physical activity in young adults may be detrimental for cognitive processing and motor function measured by reaction time and changes in brain activity.

Timing Matters? Learning of Complex Spatiotemporal Sequences in Left-hemisphere Stroke Patients.

During rehabilitation after stroke motor sequence learning is of particular importance because considerable effort is devoted to (re)acquiring lost motor skills. Previous studies suggest that implicit motor sequence learning is preserved in stroke patients but were restricted to the spatial dimension, although the timing of single action components is as important as their spatial order. As the left parietal cortex is known to play a critical role in implicit timing and spatiotemporal integration, in this study we applied an adapted version of the SRT task designed to assess both spatial (different stimulus locations) and temporal (different response-stimulus intervals) aspects of motor learning to 24 right-handed patients with a single left-hemisphere (LH) stroke and 24 age-matched healthy controls. Implicit retrieval of sequence knowledge was tested both at Day 1 and after 24 hr (Day 2). Additionally, voxel-based lesion symptom mapping was used to investigate the neurobiological substrates of the behavioral effects. Although LH stroke patients showed a combined spatiotemporal learning effect that was comparable to that observed in controls, LH stroke patients did not show learning effects for the learning probes in which only one type of sequence information was maintained whereas the other one was randomized. Particularly on Day 2, patients showed significantly smaller learning scores for these two learning probes than controls. Voxel-based lesion symptom mapping analyses revealed for all learning probes that diminished learning scores on Day 2 were associated with lesions of the striatum. This might be attributed to its role in motor chunking and offline consolidation as group differences occurred on Day 2 only. The current results suggest that LH stroke patients rely on multimodal information (here: temporal and spatial information) when retrieving motor sequence knowledge and are very sensitive to any disruption of the learnt sequence information as they seem to build very rigid chunks preventing them from forming independent spatial and temporal sequence representations.

Multisession Anodal tDCS Protocol Improves Motor System Function in an Aging Population.

Objectives. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effects of five consecutive, daily 20-minute sessions of M1 a-tDCS on motor learning in healthy, cognitively intact, aging adults. Design. A total of 23 participants (51 to 69 years old) performed five consecutive, daily 20-minute sessions of a serial reaction time task (SRT task) concomitant with either anodal (n = 12) or sham (n = 11) M1 a-tDCS. Results. We found a significant group × training sessions interaction, indicating that whereas aging adults in the sham group exhibited little-to-no sequence-specific learning improvements beyond the first day of training, reproducible improvements in the ability to learn new motor sequences over 5 consecutive sessions were the net result in age-equivalent participants from the M1 a-tDCS group. A significant main effect of group on sequence-specific learning revealed greater motor learning for the M1 a-tDCS group when the five learning sessions were averaged. Conclusion. These findings raise into prominence the utility of multisession anodal TDCS protocols in combination with motor training to help prevent/alleviate age-associated motor function decline.

The time course and characteristics of procedural learning in schizophrenia patients and healthy individuals.

Patients with schizophrenia have deficits in some types of procedural learning. Several mechanisms contribute to this learning in healthy individuals, including statistical and sequence-learning. To find preserved and impaired learning mechanisms in schizophrenia, we studied the time course and characteristics of implicitly introduced sequence-learning (SRT task) in 15 schizophrenia patients (seven mild and eight severe) and nine healthy controls, in short sessions over multiple days (5–22). The data show speed gains of similar magnitude for all groups, but the groups differed in overall speed and in the characteristics of the learning. By analyzing the data according to its spatial-position and temporal-order components, we provide evidence for two types of learning that could differentiate the groups: while the learning of the slower, severe group was dominated by statistical learning, the control group moved from a fast learning phase of statistical-related performance to subsequence learning (chunking). Our findings oppose the naïve assumption that a similar gain of speed reflects a similar learning process; they indicate that the slower performance reflects the activation of a different motor plan than does the faster performance; and demonstrate that statistical learning and subsequence learning are two successive stages in implicit sequence learning, with chunks inferred from prior statistical computations. Our results indicate that statistical learning is intact in patients with schizophrenia, but is slower to develop in the severe patients. We suggest that this slow learning rate and the associated slow performance contribute to their deficit in developing sequence-specific learning by setting a temporal constraint on developing higher order associations.

Distorted estimates of implicit and explicit learning in applications of the process-dissociation procedure to the SRT task.

We investigated potential biases affecting the validity of the process-dissociation (PD) procedure when applied to sequence learning. Participants were or were not exposed to a serial reaction time task (SRTT) with two types of pseudo-random materials. Afterwards, participants worked on a free or cued generation task under inclusion and exclusion instructions. Results showed that pre-experimental response tendencies, non-associative learning of location frequencies, and the usage of cue locations introduced bias to PD estimates. These biases may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the presence of implicit and explicit knowledge. Potential remedies for these problems are discussed.

The neural basis of implicit learning of task-irrelevant Chinese tonal sequence.

The present study sought to investigate the neural basis of implicit learning of task-irrelevant perceptual sequence. A novel SRT task, the serial syllable identification task (SSI task), was used in which the participants were asked to recognize which one of two Chinese syllables was presented. The tones of the syllables were irrelevant to the task but followed an underlying structured sequence. Participants were scanned while they performed the SSI task. Results showed that, at the behavioral level, faster RTs for the sequential material indicated that task-irrelevant sequence knowledge could be learned. In the subsequent prediction test of knowledge of the tonal cues using subjective measures, we found that the knowledge was obtained unconsciously. At the neural level, the left caudate, bilateral hippocampus and bilateral superior parietal lobule were engaged during the sequence condition relative to the random condition. Further analyses revealed that greater learning-related activation (relative to random) in the right caudate nucleus, bilateral hippocampus and left superior parietal lobule were found during the second half of the training phase compared with the first half. When people reported that they were guessing, the magnitude of the right hippocampus and left superior parietal lobule activations was positively related to the accuracy of prediction test, which was significantly better than chance. Together, the present results indicated that the caudate, hippocampus and superior parietal lobule played critical roles in the implicit perceptual sequence learning even when the perceptual features were task irrelevant.

A comparative study of performance in simple and choice reaction time tasks between obese and healthy-weight children

This study investigated weight status related differences in executive functions and movement execution to determine whether or not childhood obesity is associated with impaired perceptual-motor function. Nineteen obese (OB) children (10 ♂ and 9 ♀, aged 6-12 years) and nineteen gender and age matched healthy-weight (HW) peers performed two computer-based reaction time tasks. For both the simple and four choice reaction time (SRT/CRT) task condition, absolute mean reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) were determined and expressed as a percentage of total response time (RsT). During the SRT task, OB children were intrinsically slower than their HW peers as reflected by a significantly higher absolute RT, MT and RsT. In the CRT task, however, between-group differences were only present for RT and RsT, whereas absolute MT was comparable among OB and HW participants. As a result, the relative temporal structure of RsT significantly differed between BMI groups, with a greater RT percentage among the OB children. During the CRT condition, OB children probably await final decision-making with regard to the execution of their response movement, which then no longer needs to be adjusted. Our results therefore indicate the use of a more conservative strategy within the OB group, suggesting that childhood obesity is associated with impaired perceptual-motor function. Besides the widely accepted mechanical explanation, a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying OB children's motor incompetence is needed to set up appropriate interventions to tackle this deficit and indirectly address associated health-related problems.

The Influence of Semantically Related and Unrelated Text Cues on the Intelligibility of Sentences in Noise

In two experiments with different subject groups, we explored the relationship between semantic context and intelligibility by examining the influence of visually presented, semantically related, and unrelated three-word text cues on perception of spoken sentences in stationary noise across a range of speech-to-noise ratios (SNRs). In addition, in Experiment (Exp) 2, we explored the relationship between individual differences in cognitive factors and the effect of the cues on speech intelligibility. In Exp 1, cues had been generated by participants themselves in a previous test session (own) or by someone else (alien). These cues were either appropriate for that sentence (match) or for a different sentence (mismatch). A condition with nonword cues, generated by the experimenter, served as a control. Experimental sentences were presented at three SNRs (dB SNR) corresponding to the entirely correct repetition of 29%, 50%, or 71% of sentences (speech reception thresholds; SRTs). In Exp 2, semantically matching or mismatching cues and nonword cues were presented before sentences at SNRs corresponding to SRTs of 16% and 29%. The participants in Exp 2 also performed tests of verbal working memory capacity and the ability to read partially masked text. In Exp 1, matching cues improved perception relative to the nonword and mismatching cues, with largest benefits at the SNR corresponding to 29% performance in the SRT task. Mismatching cues did not impair speech perception relative to the nonword cue condition, and no difference in the effect of own and alien matching cues was observed. In Exp 2, matching cues improved speech perception as measured using both the percentage of correctly reported words and the percentage of entirely correctly reported sentences. Mismatching cues reduced the percentage of repeated words (but not the sentence-based scores) compared with the nonword cue condition. Working memory capacity and ability to read partly masked sentences were positively associated with the number of sentences repeated entirely correctly in the mismatch condition at the 29% SNR. In difficult listening conditions, both relevant and irrelevant semantic context can influence speech perception in noise. High working memory capacity and good linguistic skills are associated with a greater ability to inhibit irrelevant context when uncued sentence intelligibility is around 29% correct.

Offline Improvement during Motor Sequence Learning Is Not Restricted to Developing Motor Chunks

ABSTRACT Robust offline performance gains, beyond those that would be anticipated by being exposed to additional physical practice, have been reported during procedural learning and have been attributed to enhancement consolidation, a process by which memory is transformed in such a way that it is not only more resistant to forgetting but may also involve a reorganization of information that supports superior task execution. The authors assessed the impact of increasing within-session practice extent on the emergence of offline performance gains. Practice-dependent improvements occurred across 12 and 24 30-s practice trials of a 5-element motor sequencing task. Offline improvements were observed following both 12 and 24 trials. The improvement following 12 trials was associated with the formation of motor chunks important for establishing movement sequence structure. In contrast, the offline improvement after 24 trials was not related to further changes in movement structure beyond those that had emerged during practice. These data suggest that additional memory operations, beyond those needed to amalgamate subsequences of the SRT task, are susceptible to enhancement consolidation.

An Examination of the Relationship Between Ageing, Cardiovascular Fitness and Aspects of Cognitive Functioning.

Research has suggested that deterioration in cognitive function is not an inevitable concomitant of ageing and has started to focus on identifying lifestyle factors which may ameliorate age-associated cognitive decline. One such lifestyle factor that has received much empirical attention is exercise. PURPOSE: This research aimed to investigate the relationship between an individual's age, fitness level, and cognitive function on 3 cognitive tasks. These tasks measured simple reaction time (SRT task), working memory (Spatial Span task), and inhibition (stop-signal task). METHODS: 24 participants volunteered for this study and were assigned to one of four groups based on age and fitness (predicted VO2max as measured by a submaximal treadmill test). The groups were young trained (24.67 yrs ± 2.16 yrs), young untrained (23.83 yrs ± 2.86 yrs) old trained (50.83 yrs ± 7.47 yrs), and old untrained (60 yrs ± 4.24 yrs). Participants were then assessed on the 3 cognitive tasks. RESULTS: Preliminary results show that for the SRT task and the SST there was no significant difference between groups however, significant differences were observed for the working memory task; the young untrained group was significantly better than the old trained group (F (3,20) =5.314, p =.046) and the old untrained group 4 (F (3,20) =5.314, p =.014). CONCLUSIONS: The present results suggest that for basic cognitive tasks like the SRT task, increased age does not negatively influence information processing speed. However, results suggest that working memory deteriorates with age, regardless of fitness level as both older groups showed a decline in task performance compared to younger individuals. These results are somewhat consistent with findings (Colcombe & Kramer, 2003) that suggest fitness would have a greater effect on executive functions (working memory) compared to basic tasks (SRT) given that these tasks are dependent on the frontal lobes which deteriorate more rapidly than other brain regions. This study found that tasks which require frontal lobe involvement were prone to age-associated cognitive decline, however this was not mediated by fitness level. Colcombe, S., & Kramer, A. F. (2003). Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Science, 14, 125-130.

The distinction between intuition and guessing in the SRT task generation: A reply to Norman and Price

We (Fu, Dienes, & Fu, 2010) investigated the extent to which people could generate sequences of responses based on knowledge acquired from the Serial Reaction Time task, depending on whether it felt subjectively like the response was based on pure guessing, intuition, conscious rules or memories. Norman and Price (2010) argued that in the context of our task, intuition responses were the same as guessing responses. In reply, we argue that not only do subjects apparently claim to be experiencing different phenomenologies when saying intuition versus guess, but also intuition and guess responses are associated with different behaviors. We found that people could control the knowledge when generating responses felt to be based on intuition but not those felt to be pure guessing. We present further evidence here that triplets associated with intuition but not guessing were also processed fluently.