The acquisition of sequential knowledge is pivotal in forming skilled behavior. Despite extensive research of sequence learning, much remains unknown regarding what knowledge participants learn in such studies, and how that knowledge takes form over time. By tracking eye-movements made before stimuli appear on screen during a serial reaction time (SRT) task, we devised a method for assessing learning at the individual participant level in an item-based resolution. Our method enables uncovering what participants actually learn about the sequence presented to them, and when. Results demonstrate that learning is more heterogeneous than previously thought, driven by learning both of chunks and of statistics embedded in the sequence. Also, learning develops rapidly, but in a fragmented and non-sequential manner, eventually encompassing only a subset of available regularities. The tools developed in this work may aid in further dissociating processes and mechanisms underlying sequence learning and its impairments, in normal and in clinical populations.

中文翻译：

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序列学习如何展开：来自预期眼球运动的见解。


顺序知识的获取对于形成熟练行为至关重要。尽管对序列学习进行了广泛的研究，但关于参与者在此类研究中学到了什么知识以及这些知识如何随着时间的推移而形成，仍然有很多未知之处。通过跟踪连续反应时间 (SRT) 任务期间刺激出现在屏幕上之前进行的眼球运动，我们设计了一种在基于项目的分辨率中评估个体参与者级别学习的方法。我们的方法能够揭示参与者对呈现给他们的序列实际了解的内容以及时间。结果表明，学习比以前想象的更加异构，这是由学习块和嵌入序列中的统计数据驱动的。此外，学习发展迅速，但以碎片化和非顺序的方式发展，最终只包含可用规律的子集。这项工作中开发的工具可能有助于进一步分离正常和临床人群中序列学习及其损伤的过程和机制。