Incidental Auditory Category Learning and Visuomotor Sequence Learning

Abstract

The environment provides multiple regularities that might be useful in guiding behavior if one can learn their structure. Understanding statistical learning across simultaneous regularities is important, but poorly understood. We investigate learning across two domains: motor sequence learning through the serial reaction time (SRT) task and incidental auditory category learning via the systematic multimodal association reaction time (SMART) task. Several commonalities raise the possibility that these two learning phenomena may draw on common cognitive resources and neural networks. In each, participants are uninformed of the regularities that they come to use to guide actions, the outcomes of which may provide a form of internal feedback. Despite these commonalities, it is unclear whether the learning challenges draw upon common resources. We used dual task conditions to compare learning of the regularities in isolation versus when they collaborated to simultaneously support behavior on a seemingly orthogonal visuomotor task. Learning occurred across the simultaneous regularities, without reduction even when the informational value of a regularity was reduced by presence of the additional, convergent regularity with learning that was compared learning the regularity in isolation. The lack of interference under dual task conditions suggests that motor sequence learning and incidental auditory category learning do not compete for common cognitive resources. Moreover learning when the informational value of an individual regularity is reduced by the presence of the other regularity is as robust as learning of the regularities in isolation, suggesting the simultaneous regularities do not compete for associative strength as in overshadowing effects.

The representational glue for incidental category learning is alignment with task-relevant behavior.

“…Learning across perceptual input invariably produces individual differences in learning outcomes (Roark & Chandrasekaran, 2021; Shamloo & Hélie, 2020; Shen & Palmeri, 2016). In the absence of sounds during the SMART task, participants get faster at detecting the visual targets with practice across blocks (Gabay et al, 2019). Thus, it is important to recognize that incidental auditory category learning travels together with visuomotor learning of task demands.…”