Generalization of procedural motor sequence learning after a single practice trial

Johnson, B.P., Iturrate, I., Fakhreddine, R.Y., Bönstrup, M., Buch, E.R., Robertson, E.M. and Cohen, L.G. (2023) Generalization of procedural motor sequence learning after a single practice trial. npj Science of Learning, 8, 45. (doi: 10.1038/s41539-023-00194-7) (PMID:37803003) (PMCID:PMC10558563)

Abstract

When humans begin learning new motor skills, they typically display early rapid performance improvements. It is not well understood how knowledge acquired during this early skill learning period generalizes to new, related skills. Here, we addressed this question by investigating factors influencing generalization of early learning from a skill A to a different, but related skill B. Early skill generalization was tested over four experiments (N = 2095). Subjects successively learned two related motor sequence skills (skills A and B) over different practice schedules. Skill A and B sequences shared ordinal (i.e., matching keypress locations), transitional (i.e., ordered keypress pairs), parsing rule (i.e., distinct sequence events like repeated keypresses that can be used as a breakpoint for segmenting the sequence into smaller units) structures, or possessed no structure similarities. Results showed generalization for shared parsing rule structure between skills A and B after only a single 10-second practice trial of skill A. Manipulating the initial practice exposure to skill A (1 to 12 trials) and inter-practice rest interval (0–30 s) between skills A and B had no impact on parsing rule structure generalization. Furthermore, this generalization was not explained by stronger sensorimotor mapping between individual keypress actions and their symbolic representations. In contrast, learning from skill A did not generalize to skill B during early learning when the sequences shared only ordinal or transitional structure features. These results document sequence structure that can be very rapidly generalized during initial learning to facilitate generalization of skill.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH. Open Access funding provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Robertson, Professor Edwin
• Authors: Johnson, B.P., Iturrate, I., Fakhreddine, R.Y., Bönstrup, M., Buch, E.R., Robertson, E.M., and Cohen, L.G.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: npj Science of Learning
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2056-7936
• ISSN (Online): 2056-7936
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in npj Science of Learning 8: 45
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License