Compostella Arianna, Tagliani Marta, Vender Maria, Delfitto Denis
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Department of Cultures and Civilizations, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
PLoS One. 2025 Feb 6;20(2):e0318638. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0318638. eCollection 2025.
In this study, we examine how implicit statistical learning (ISL) interacts with the cognitive bias of the alternation advantage in serial reaction time (SRT) tasks. Our aim was to disentangle perceptual from motor aspects of learning, as well as to shed light on the cognitive sources of this alternation effect. We developed a manual (Study 1) and an oculomotor (Study 2) two-choice SRT task, with visual stimuli following the regularities of two binary artificial grammars (Fibonacci and its modification Skip). While these grammars share some deterministic transitional regularities, they differ in their probabilistic transitional regularities and distributional properties. The pattern of manual RTs in Study 1 provide evidence for ISL, showing that subjects learned the deterministic and probabilistic transitions in the two grammars. We also found a bias toward alternation (vs. repetition) in correspondence to non-deterministic points, regardless of their statistical properties in the grammars. Study 2 provides further evidence for both ISL and the alternation advantage, in terms of shorter manual RTs and higher accuracy rates of anticipatory eye movements. Saccadic responses preceding stimulus onset allow us to argue for the perceptual nature of ISL: participants detected regularities in the string by forming S-S associations based on the sequence of the perceived stimuli. Moreover, we propose that shifts in visuospatial attention preceding oculomotor programming play a role in the occurrence of the alternation advantage, and that such an effect is driven by the spatial location of the stimulus. These findings are also discussed with respect to the presence of two (possibly interacting) parsing strategies: statistical generalizations on the string vs. local hierarchical reconstruction.
在本研究中，我们考察了内隐统计学习（ISL）如何与序列反应时（SRT）任务中的交替优势认知偏差相互作用。我们的目的是区分学习的感知方面和运动方面，同时阐明这种交替效应的认知来源。我们开发了一个手动（研究1）和一个动眼（研究2）二选一的SRT任务，视觉刺激遵循两种二元人工语法（斐波那契及其变体跳过）的规律。虽然这些语法具有一些确定性的过渡规律，但它们在概率性过渡规律和分布特性方面有所不同。研究1中手动反应时的模式为ISL提供了证据，表明受试者学习了两种语法中的确定性和概率性过渡。我们还发现，与非确定性点相对应，存在对交替（而非重复）的偏差，无论它们在语法中的统计特性如何。研究2在更短的手动反应时和更高的预期眼动准确率方面，为ISL和交替优势提供了进一步的证据。刺激开始前的扫视反应使我们能够论证ISL的感知性质：参与者通过基于感知到的刺激序列形成刺激-刺激关联来检测字符串中的规律。此外，我们提出，在动眼程序编制之前视觉空间注意的转移在交替优势的出现中起作用，并且这种效应是由刺激的空间位置驱动的。我们还就两种（可能相互作用的）解析策略的存在讨论了这些发现：对字符串的统计概括与局部层次重构。
