Toth-Faber, Eszter, Janacsek, Karolina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7829-8220 and Nemeth, Dezso (2021) Statistical and sequence learning lead to persistent memory in children after a one-year offline period. Scientific Reports, 11:12418. ISSN 2045-2322 (doi:10.1038/s41598-021-90560-5)

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Abstract

Extraction of environmental patterns underlies human learning throughout the lifespan and plays a crucial role not only in cognitive but also perceptual, motor, and social skills. At least two types of regularities contribute to acquiring skills: (1) statistical, probability-based regularities, and (2) serial order-based regularities. Memory performance of probability-based and/or serial order-based regularities over short periods (from minutes to weeks) has been widely investigated across the lifespan. However, long-term (months or year-long) memory performance of such knowledge has received relatively less attention and has not been assessed in children yet. Here, we aimed to test the long-term memory performance of probability-based and serial order-based regularities over a 1-year offline period in neurotypical children between the age of 9 and 15. Participants performed a visuomotor four-choice reaction time task designed to measure the acquisition of probability-based and serial order-based regularities simultaneously. Short-term consolidation effects were controlled by retesting their performance after a 5-h delay. They were then retested on the same task 1 year later without any practice between the sessions. Participants successfully acquired both probability-based and serial order-based regularities and retained both types of knowledge over the 1-year period. The successful retention was independent of age. Our study demonstrates that the representation of probability-based and serial order-based regularities remains stable over a long period of time. These findings offer indirect evidence for the developmental invariance model of skill consolidation.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	procedural learning, consolidation, child development, statistical learning, sequence learning
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HA Statistics L Education > L Education (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development > Centre for Thinking and Learning
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	30 Jul 2021 14:10
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/33356

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