Faster implicit motor sequence learning of new sequences compatible in terms of movement transitions.

Abstract

New information that is compatible with pre-existing knowledge can be learned faster. Such schema memory effect has been reported in declarative memory and in explicit motor sequence learning (MSL). Here, we investigated if sequences of key presses that were compatible to previously trained ones, could be learned faster in an implicit MSL task. Participants trained a motor sequence before switching to a completely new sequence, to a compatible sequence with high overlap in ordinal positions, or to an incompatible sequence with low overlap, while the compatible and incompatible sequences had the same overlap in movement transitions. We observed accelerated learning in the Compatible and Incompatible groups compared to the New group, if participants trained for 3 sessions before switching to the altered sequence. Overall, our study suggests facilitative learning of implicit motor sequences that are compatible in movement transitions, if the previous sequence has been trained extensively.