Submission 370
Sequence Learning Transfer in the Visual and Motor Domain
Posterwall-22
Presented by: Zixin Shen
Similar learning rates in visual and motor sequence learning (SL) tasks suggest a common underlying mechanism. Therefore, the ongoing study examined whether SL would transfer between domains. Response time (RT) was measured in a sequential button-pressing task. Participants (n=59, mean age=23.37± 2.94 years, 26 male) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: two SL transfer groups (visual-to-motor, VM; motor-to-visual, MV) and two control groups. Training lists for the SL groups repeated two randomised and four sequential elements; for the control groups, the lists contained only randomised elements. Learning was measured in the final training block, followed by a sequential transfer block of the opposite domain. Preliminary data were analysed. A mixed 2 (group: VM vs MV) * 2 (block: training vs transfer) * 2 (element type: randomised vs sequential) ANOVA on RT only found a significant interaction of block and element type, F(1,26) = 10.642, p = .003, ηp 2 = 0.290. In the final training block, RTs were shorter for sequential (600ms) than for randomised elements (623ms), t(27) = 3.20, p = .003, Cohen’s d = 0.392, suggesting a similar SL rate in both domains. In the transfer block, in contrast, RTs did not differ between the sequential and randomised elements, t(27) = 1.46, p = .157, d = 0.123, indicating that learning did not transfer across domains. Similar SL rates in both domains support a common underlying mechanism. The absence of transfer indicates the existence of two distinct SL systems rather than a comprehensive one.