Citation

Rowland LA, Shanks DR. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 2006; 32(2): 287-299.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University College London, London, England. l.rowland@soton.ac.uk

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0096-1523.32.2.287

PMID

16634671

Abstract

The authors studied the role of attention as a selection mechanism in implicit learning by examining the effect on primary sequence learning of performing a demanding target-selection task. Participants were trained on probabilistic sequences in a novel version of the serial reaction time (SRT) task, with dual- and triple-stimulus participants having to ignore irrelevant items in the SRT display. Despite large performance decrements under dual- and triple-stimulus configurations, testing under single-stimulus conditions revealed no impairment to sequence learning. These findings suggest that implicit sequence learning is resistant to disruption of the selection process. Results are discussed in terms of a componential model of attention and in relation to the implicit-explicit distinction.

Language: en