Many studies have documented that multitasking reduces Response Time (RT) indicators of implicit sequence learning as well as the expression of acquired sequence knowledge in RT benefits. In these tasks it is only relevant that the correct key is hit quickly, not where it is hit. We explored how variability in response location is influenced by (a) breaking a repeating sequence of target locations, (b) multitasking demands in the current trial, and (c) presence of multitasking in the block. Participants performed a Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) on a touchscreen while shutting down a beep tone by pressing the space bar with their non-dominant hand (throughout Experiment 1 and in the second half of Experiment 2). The first-order sequence of four response locations on the screen was broken by off-sequence deviants in 1/6th of the trials. Our results show a dissociation between RT and response location variability. While the effect of breaking the sequence on RT was larger under single- than under multitasking, breaking the sequence only led to an increase in response location variability under multitasking. Experiment 3 suggested that the impact of sequence knowledge on either aspect of performance in the SRTT is limited by interference from an additional task.

中文翻译：

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不仅仅是快速找到正确的密钥。

许多研究已经证明，多任务处理可以减少隐式序列学习的响应时间（RT）指标以及RT收益中获得的序列知识的表达。在这些任务中，与正确击打正确的按键有关，而与击打正确的按键无关。我们探索了如何通过以下方式来影响响应位置的可变性：（a）中断目标位置的重复序列；（b）当前试验中的多任务需求；以及（c）块中存在多任务。参与者在触摸屏上执行了串行反应时间任务（SRTT），同时用非惯用手按压空格键来关闭蜂鸣声（在实验1和实验2的下半部分）。在试验的1/6中，屏幕上四个响应位置的第一序列被序列外变异所破坏。我们的结果表明，RT和响应位置变异性之间存在分离关系。尽管在单任务下打破序列对RT的影响要比在多任务下更大，但打破序列只会导致多任务下响应位置变异性的增加。实验3表明，序列知识对SRTT性能的任何方面的影响都受到其他任务的干扰的限制。