Elteto, N. 1 , Pajkossy, P. 2, 3 , Janacsek, K. 1, 2 , Racsmány, M. 2, 3 & Németh, D. 1, 2, 4
1 Institute of Psychology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary
2 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
3 Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
4 Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), Université de Lyon, France
Vakil et al. (2016) have shown that learning of visuospatial sequences can take place both in manual activated and ocular activated versions of the SRT task. However, since Vakil et al. used deterministic sequences, it remained a question whether the oculomotor system merely adapts to first-order associations. Here we explored anticipatory eye movements and their role using a modified version of the SRT task, in which the stimulus location is alternately determined by a fixed sequence or by random choice. This design allowed us to track how participants implicitly learned predictable versus unpredictable locations, via concurrent manual-motor and oculomotor responses. Participants were able to extract regularities from the probabilistic sequence: they showed faster manual responses to predictable trials than to unpredictable trials. More importantly, oculomotor anticipations also emerged. With practice, participants tended to look at the predictable location even before the stimulus appeared, despite that there was no instruction to make predictions. Such anticipations also coupled with faster manual responses, however, this was not specific to predictable trials. Future research should address the question of whether concurrent learning arises from the distinct adaptation of the two effectors, or both of them are involved in a domain-general adaptation.