Response interference in the acquisition of sequential patterns of binary events

Binary patterns were learned by Ss who predicted the events from the start, observed until ready to predict, or counted successive events until ready to predict. The counting response, even though it is stimulus redundant and supplies information about run length, resulted in acquisition that was more like learning with prediction than learning with observation. Overt responses, when they do interfere with the acquisition of binary sequences, apparently interfere more with the organization of run-length orders than with run-length “perception.”