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Understanding the Effect of Manipulating Task Importance on Implicit Sequence Learning

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Erin Hugee¹, Paul J. Reber¹; ¹Northwestern University

Implicit learning within the broader context of skill learning is theorized to depend on the statistical extraction of regularities during repeated practice. A persistent challenge lies in identifying how implicit knowledge representations are affected by potentially overlapping motivational contexts. For example, how changes in motivation or task difficulty occur in different learning environments. Here we explored how implicit motor learning is modulated by motivational contexts using a within-subjects design of the Serial Interception Sequence Learning (SISL) task. In the SISL paradigm, participants make precisely timed responses to moving visual cues that covertly follow a 12-item repeating sequence. Participants were instructed that after a training period they would be able to earn points towards a set goal. At test, points were earned by accurately responding to cues in alternating blocks with High and Low stakes conditions. In Low stakes blocks, participants were told they could earn or lose only a small number of points, whereas in High stakes blocks they could earn or lose ten times as many points, emphasized by a visual background change. After 144 sequence repetitions, all participants showed reliable sequence-specific learning. Survey results indicated that participants rated the High stakes blocks as significantly more important than Low stakes blocks. However, there were no observable differences in knowledge expression between stakes conditions. Perceived importance through task motivation may not have sufficiently influenced implicit learning, or this may indicate that the SISL task targets implicit learning processes that are unaffected by motivational instruction.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Motor control