Rey, A. 1 , Tosatto, L. 1 & Bogaerts, L. 2
1 CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, France
2 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Detecting and encoding regularities is probably one of our most fundamental ability that structures our cognitive and motor systems. The goal of the present study is to better understand the dynamics of regularity extraction in humans by using a simple experimental paradigm and an online implicit measure. In the reported set of experiments, participants were instructed to name single letters that were presented one at a time on a computer screen. They were not informed that regularities were inserted in the sequence of presented letters. These regularities corresponded to a triplet of letters (e.g., F-B-M) that occurred systematically in that order. The target triplet was repeated several times and random letters were inserted between two repetitions of the triplet (e.g. V-T-F-B-M-G-F-B-M-R-S-?). By varying the nature of the triplet (i.e., a triplet of vowels among random consonants or a triplet of consonants among other random consonants) and the amount of interfering information (i.e., the number of random letters between two repetitions of the triplet), we explored the conditions under which regularity extraction was possible, both implicitly (by observing, over several repetitions of the triplet, the decrease of naming onset latencies on the second and third letters of the triplet, i.e., B and M) and explicitly (by asking participants if they noticed the repeated triplet and if they could produce it). The results indicate that this simple letter naming task provides an interesting experimental paradigm to the study our ability to detect regularities among random information.