Unconscious cultural cognitive biases in explicit processes of visuomotor adaptation

Studies have shown that explicit strategies make a significant contribution to visuomotor adaptation. However, little attention has been given to potential unconscious cognitive biases in these strategies, despite that they involve a sequence of cognitive decision-making processes. To reveal the possible cultural biases involved in motor learning, we compared Norwegian and Japanese participants in a visuomotor adaptation task using a verbal report paradigm. The results showed that Japanese participants aimed at locations more deviant from the target to account for rotated visual feedback. Additionally, a greater proportion of Japanese participants changed their aiming direction more frequently than Norwegian participants, even after successfully hitting the target. However, both groups showed similar behavioral performance, with comparable reaching accuracy and aftereffect amplitudes. These results suggest that the explicit component, which is estimated based on verbal reports, includes cognitive biases. The present study challenges the assumption of universality of motor learning among cultures.