Patterns of Interference in Sequence Learning and Prism Adaptation Inconsistent With the Consolidation Hypothesis
Abstract
The studies reported here used an interference paradigm to determine whether a long-term consolidation process (i.e., one lasting from several hours to days) occurs in the learning of two implicit motor skills, learning of a movement sequence and learning of a visuo-motor mapping. Subjects learned one skill and were tested on that skill 48 h later. Between the learning session and test session, some subjects trained on a second skill. The amount of time between the learning of the two skills varied for different subjects. In both the learning of a movement sequence and the learning of a visuo-motor mapping, we found that remote memories were susceptible to interference, but the passage of time did not afford protection from interference. These results are inconsistent with the long-term consolidation of these motor skills. A possible difference between these tasks and those that do show long-term consolidation is that the present tasks are not dynamic motor skills.
Footnotes
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↵3 Corresponding author.
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E-MAIL goedert{at}plu.edu; FAX (253) 535-8305.
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Article and publication are at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.50102.
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↵4 Use of the covariate was an attempt to eliminate variability in interference scores attributable to differences in original learning. For cases in which the covariate was used only the covariate-adjusted means are reported. Covariate-adjusted group means were obtained in the following manner: Adj YA = YA – bS/A(XA – XT) where Adj YA = covariate-adjusted treatment mean for level A YA = unadjusted treatment mean for level A bS/A = average within-groups regression coefficient XA = group mean on the covariate for level A XT = grand mean on the covariate (mean of group means)
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- Received May 3, 2002.
- Accepted August 14, 2002.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
