Sequence learning effects in simple perceptual and motor tasks are largely unaffected by normal aging. However, less is known about sequence learning in more complex cognitive tasks that involve attention and memory processes and how this changes with age. In this study, we examined whether incidental and intentional sequence learning would facilitate hybrid visual and memory search in younger and older adults. Observers performed a hybrid search task, in which they memorized four or 16 target objects and searched for any of those target objects in displays with four or 16 objects. The memorized targets appeared either in a repeating sequential order or in random order. In the first experiment, observers were not told about the sequence before the experiment. Only a subset of younger adults and none of the older adults incidentally learned the sequence. The “learners” acquired explicit knowledge about the sequence and searched faster in the sequence compared to random condition. In the second experiment, observers were told about the sequence before the search task. Both younger and older adults searched faster in sequence blocks than random blocks. Older adults, however, showed this sequence-learning effect only in blocks with smaller target sets. Our findings indicate that explicit sequence knowledge can facilitate hybrid search, as it allows observers to predict the next target and restrict their visual and memory search. In older age, the sequence-learning effect is constrained by load, presumably due to age-related decline in executive functions.

简单知觉和运动任务中的序列学习效果在很大程度上不受正常衰老的影响。然而，人们对涉及注意力和记忆过程的更复杂认知任务中的序列学习以及这种情况如何随年龄变化的情况知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们研究了偶然和有意的序列学习是否会促进年轻人和老年人的混合视觉和记忆搜索。观察者执行混合搜索任务，其中他们记住 4 个或 16 个目标对象，并在具有 4 个或 16 个对象的显示器中搜索任何目标对象。记忆的目标以重复顺序或随机顺序出现。在第一个实验中，观察者在实验前没有被告知序列。只有一小部分年轻人偶然知道了这个序列，而没有一个老年人偶然知道了这个序列。 “学习者”获得了关于序列的明确知识，并且与随机条件相比，在序列中搜索速度更快。在第二个实验中，观察者在执行搜索任务之前被告知顺序。年轻人和老年人在序列块中的搜索速度都比随机块中的搜索速度快。然而，老年人仅在目标集较小的区块中表现出这种序列学习效果。我们的研究结果表明，显式序列知识可以促进混合搜索，因为它允许观察者预测下一个目标并限制他们的视觉和记忆搜索。在老年时，顺序学习效果受到负荷的限制，这可能是由于与年龄相关的执行功能下降。