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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task
Published on: May 3, 2018
The procedural learning of action order is independent of temporal learning
1Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904-4400, USA. js4fh@virginia.edu
Abstract:
How does learning the timing of actions influence our ability to learn the order of actions? A sequence of responses cued by spatial stimuli was learned in a serial reaction time task where the response-to-stimulus intervals (RSIs) were random, constant, or followed a fixed sequence. In this final sequenced-RSI condition, the response and RSI sequences were consistently matched in phase and could be integrated into a common sequence representation. The main result was that the response sequence was learned to a similar degree in all RSI training conditions, indicating that neither the predictability of RSIs nor the integration of the phase-matched response and timing sequences benefited learning of the response sequence. Nevertheless, temporal learning and integration speeded up performance without strengthening the representation of response order.
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