Attentional Demand of a Movement Sequence Guided by Visual-Spatial and by Motor Representations

The objective of the experiment was to assess the change in attentional demands of a movement sequence guided by visual-spatial and motor representations across practice sessions in a dual-task probe paradigm. Participants were randomly assigned to either a 1-day or 2-day practice group. Following acquisition of the motor sequence task, participants first conducted a retention test and then four inter-manual transfer tests under single and dual-task conditions. The probe task was a simple reaction time. The inter-manual transfer tests, consisting of a mirror and non-mirror test, examined the development of the motor and visual-spatial representation, respectively. The results indicated that both representations guided the movement sequence and required attention. The attentional demands did not change with additional practice.