Age-related differences in sequence learning: findings from two visuo-motor sequence learning tasks
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(Accepted version)
Date
2018
Authors
Urry, K.
Burns, N.
Baetu, I.
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Journal article
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British Journal of Psychology, 2018; 109(4):830-849
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Kristi Urry, Nicholas R. Burns and Irina Baetu
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Abstract
The Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) is thought to assess implicit learning, which seems to be preserved with age. However, the reaction time (RT) measures employed on implicit-like tasks might be too unreliable to detect individual differences. We investigated whether RT-based measures mask age effects by comparing the performance of 43 younger and 35 older adults on SRTT and an explicit-like Predictive Sequence Learning Task (PSLT). RT-based measures (difference scores and a ratio) were collected for both tasks, and accuracy was additionally measured for PSLT. We also measured fluid abilities. The RT-difference scores indicated preserved SRTT and PSLT performance with age and did not correlate with fluid abilities, while ratio RT and the accuracy-based measures indicated age-related decline and correlated with fluid abilities. Therefore, RT-difference scores might mask individual differences, which compromises the interpretation of previous studies using SRTT.
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© 2018 The British Psychological Society