One-year retention of general and sequence-specific skills in a probabilistic, serial reaction time task

Procedural skills such as riding a bicycle and playing a musical instrument play a central role in daily life. Such skills are learned gradually and are retained throughout life. The present study investigated 1-year retention of procedural skill in a version of the widely used serial reaction time task (SRTT) in young and older motor-skill experts and older controls in two experiments. The young experts were college-age piano and action video-game players, and the older experts were piano players. Previous studies have reported sequence-specific skill retention in the SRTT as long as 2 weeks but not at 1 year. Results indicated that both young and older experts and older non-experts revealed sequence-specific skill retention after 1 year with some evidence that general motor skill was retained as well. These findings are consistent with theoretical accounts of procedural skill learning such as the procedural reinstatement theory as well as with previous studies of retention of other motor skills.

[1]  Zhiming Zhang,et al.  Motor memory preservation in aged monkeys mirrors that of aged humans on a similar task , 2008, Neurobiology of Aging.

[2]  Erica L. Wohldmann,et al.  Specificity effects in training and transfer of speeded responses. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[3]  Deborah M. Clawson,et al.  Retention and transfer of morse code reception skill by novices: part-whole training. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[4]  Arthur S. Reber,et al.  Very long term memory for tacit knowledge , 1980, Cognition.

[5]  Alice F. Healy,et al.  The Long-Term Retention of a Complex Skill , 1995 .

[6]  R. Clark,et al.  Classical conditioning, awareness, and brain systems , 2002, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[7]  R. Poldrack,et al.  How do memory systems interact? Evidence from human classification learning , 2004, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

[8]  D. Howard,et al.  Implicit sequence learning: effects of level of structure, adult age, and extended practice. , 2004, Psychology and aging.

[9]  J. Pratt,et al.  Playing an Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences in Spatial Cognition , 2007, Psychological science.

[10]  Sunbin Song,et al.  Implicit probabilistic sequence learning is independent of explicit awareness. , 2007, Learning & memory.

[11]  Robert E. Clark,et al.  Medial Temporal Lobe Function and Memory. , 2004 .

[12]  J. Daly,et al.  Answering the Call: The Influence of Neuroimaging and Electrophysiological Evidence on Rehabilitation , 2007, Physical Therapy.

[13]  R. Poldrack,et al.  Competition among multiple memory systems: converging evidence from animal and human brain studies , 2003, Neuropsychologia.

[14]  Richard J Tunney,et al.  Implicit and explicit knowledge decay at different rates: a dissociation between priming and recognition in artificial grammar learning. , 2003, Experimental psychology.

[15]  E. Soetens,et al.  Sequence learning and sequential effects , 2004, Psychological research.

[16]  D. Bavelier,et al.  Exercising your brain: a review of human brain plasticity and training-induced learning. , 2008, Psychology and aging.

[17]  E. Bizzi,et al.  The Cognitive Neurosciences , 1996 .

[18]  Daniel B. Willingham,et al.  Explicit and implicit remembering: When is learning preserved in amnesia? , 1989, Neuropsychologia.

[19]  Timothy C Rickard,et al.  Sleep Does Not Enhance Motor Sequence Learning and Sumeet Gupta for Assistance with Data Collection; Daniel Bajic for Assistance with Programming; and John Wixted for Comments on an Earlier , 2008 .

[20]  E. Robertson.  The Serial Reaction Time Task: Implicit Motor Skill Learning? , 2007, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[21]  A. Healy,et al.  Long-term repetition effects for motoric and perceptual procedures. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[22]  Tal Savion-Lemieux,et al.  The effects of practice and delay on motor skill learning and retention , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

[23]  O. Hikosaka,et al.  Long-term retention of motor skill in macaque monkeys and humans , 2002, Experimental Brain Research.

[24]  L. Squire,et al.  Encapsulation of Implicit and Explicit Memory in Sequence Learning , 1998, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[25]  J. H. Howard,et al.  Age differences in implicit learning of higher order dependencies in serial patterns. , 1997, Psychology and aging.

[26]  D. Willingham,et al.  Long-term retention of a motor skill: Implicit sequence knowledge is not retained after a one-year delay , 1997 .

[27]  Roger W. Schvaneveldt,et al.  Attention and probabilistic sequence learning , 1998 .

[28]  A. Karni,et al.  The time course of learning a visual skill , 1993, Nature.

[29]  Alice F. Healy,et al.  The Procedural Reinstatement Principle: Studies on Training, Retention, and Transfer. , 2005 .

[30]  C. Stern,et al.  An fMRI Study of the Role of the Medial Temporal Lobe in Implicit and Explicit Sequence Learning , 2003, Neuron.

[31]  B. Rockstroh,et al.  Increased Cortical Representation of the Fingers of the Left Hand in String Players , 1995, Science.

[32]  J. H. Howard,et al.  Adult age differences in the rate of learning serial patterns: evidence from direct and indirect tests. , 1992, Psychology and aging.

[33]  J. Pratt,et al.  The effects of action video game experience on the time course of inhibition of return and the efficiency of visual search. , 2005, Acta psychologica.

[34]  James R Korndorffer,et al.  Skill retention following proficiency-based laparoscopic simulator training. , 2005, Surgery.

[35]  K. Petersson,et al.  Towards an explicit account of implicit learning , 2005, Current opinion in neurology.

[36]  T. Brashers-Krug,et al.  Functional Stages in the Formation of Human Long-Term Motor Memory , 1997, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[37]  Karen M Rodrigue,et al.  Aging and longitudinal change in perceptual-motor skill acquisition in healthy adults. , 2005, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[38]  D. Howard,et al.  Age differences in learning serial patterns: direct versus indirect measures. , 1989, Psychology and aging.

[39]  C. S. Green,et al.  Action video game modifies visual selective attention , 2003, Nature.

[40]  R. Kryscio,et al.  Memories that last in old age: motor skill learning and memory preservation , 2005, Neurobiology of Aging.

[41]  Erica L. Wohldmann,et al.  Skill training, retention, and transfer: The effects of a concurrent secondary task , 2005, Memory & cognition.

[42]  Nancy J. Cooke,et al.  Retention of Skilled Search after Nine Years , 1994 .

[43]  A. Healy,et al.  Acquisition and retention of a letter-detection skill. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[44]  D. Knopman,et al.  Long-term retention of implicitly acquired learning in patients with Alzheimer's disease. , 1991, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.