School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2214, USA.
Exp Brain Res. 2010 Apr;201(4):837-51. doi: 10.1007/s00221-009-2098-5. Epub 2009 Dec 1.
In three experiments, we examined the effects of age and spatial processing on implicit sequence learning. In experiment 1, 48 older adults (OA) and 48 young adults (YA) performed the alternating serial reaction time task (ASRT) under one of four conditions in which spatial processing demands were either present or absent from stimulus presentation (spatial vs. symbolic cueing) and/or response execution (spatial manual vs. vocal responses). Surprisingly, OA exhibited more learning than YA in the two vocal response conditions. In two follow-up experiments, we increased the response selection demands of the sequence learning task by asking new groups of YA and OA participants to make word categorization responses with 1:1 stimulus-response mapping (experiment 2) and 2:1 mapping (experiment 3) rather than letter reading (vocal response condition of experiment 1). The results showed that YA had increased learning under the more challenging response selection conditions (experiments 2 and 3) while OA did not. We propose that (1) manipulating the spatial aspects of implicit sequence learning does not necessarily impact the amount of learning for OA, (2) implicit sequence learning depends on both the structure of response execution and relative task difficulty, and (3) these factors affect implicit sequence learning for both YA and OA.
在三项实验中，我们研究了年龄和空间处理对内隐序列学习的影响。在实验 1 中，48 名老年被试（OA）和 48 名年轻被试（YA）在四种条件下完成交替序列反应时任务（ASRT），其中刺激呈现时的空间处理需求（空间与符号提示）和/或反应执行（空间手动与声音反应）存在或不存在。令人惊讶的是，在两种声音反应条件下，OA 的学习效果优于 YA。在两项后续实验中，我们通过要求新的 YA 和 OA 被试进行单词分类反应，用 1:1 刺激-反应映射（实验 2）和 2:1 映射（实验 3）代替字母阅读（实验 1 中的声音反应条件），增加了序列学习任务的反应选择需求。结果表明，在更具挑战性的反应选择条件下，YA 的学习有所增加（实验 2 和 3），而 OA 则没有。我们提出了以下假设：（1）操纵内隐序列学习的空间方面不一定会影响 OA 的学习量；（2）内隐序列学习取决于反应执行的结构和相对任务难度；（3）这些因素对内隐序列学习对 YA 和 OA 都有影响。
