serial reaction time learning in preschool- and school-age children thomas and nelson, 2001
TRANSCRIPT
Serial Reaction Time Learning in Preschool- and School-Age Children
Thomas and Nelson, 2001
Purpose
To examine visuomotor sequence learning in children
To assess the development of explicit awareness in children
Brief Background
2 Types of sequence learning: Implicit:
Unaware of presence of sequence
Explicit: Conscious awareness of
presence of sequence
Experiment 1: Methods
Subjects: 22 7-year-olds 20 10-year-olds
Conditions: Pre-exposure No Exposure
Measurements: “Reaction time”
Pre-Exposure
No Exposure
7-year-olds 7-y.o. Pre-exposure
7-y.o. No exposure
10-year-olds 10-y.o. Pre-exposure
10-y.o.No exposure
Experiment 1: Procedure
Experiment 1: Results
Experiment 1: Results Cont’d
Experiment 1: Conclusion
7- and 10-year olds demonstrate significant learning of a visuomotor sequence using a standard SRT task
Significant interaction of age and explicit awareness 10-year-olds with explicit knowledge: significantly more
anticipations Implicit: anticipations did not differ by age
Experiment 2
Purpose: To further address the developmental time course of sequence learning mechanisms
Experiment 2: Methods
Subjects 46 4-year-olds
Conditions Pre-exposure No Exposure
Measurements Variant of the SRT task Quadrant presentation
Experiment 2: Procedure
×
Experiment 2: Results
Experiment 2: Results Cont’d
Experiment 2: Results Cont’d
Experiment 2: Conclusion
4-year-old children demonstrate significant learning of a visuomotor sequence using a variant SRT task
No difference between pre-exposure and no exposure conditions in acquisition of explicit awareness of sequence
Discussion
4-10-y.o. demonstrated significant learning of a sequence in a SRT paradigm while maintaining a high level of response accuracy
Complete explicit knowledge demonstrated larger sequence-specific learning
The degree of anticipatory responding increased with age 4-year-olds showed smallest overall sequence
learning effects
Limitations
Cannot directly compare experiment 1 and 2 Different task
Experiment 1: allowed child to use any finger combination to make responses
First block following exposure was random Interference?
2 blocks enough practice to learn sequence?
