Developmental Invariance in Implicit Sequence Learning

This study was intended to test the age invariance hypothesis on implicit learning abilities using the serial reaction time paradigm and focusing on the comparison of second-order conditional (SOC) sequences of two different lengths (8 and 12 elements). A total of 128 participants from 4 age groups (4 years, 7 years, 10 years, and adults) were tested. The results showed significant and similar learning effects in 4-, 7-, and 10-year-old children, as well as adults. The learning effect was more pronounced for the 8-element sequence than for the 12-element sequence for all age groups, suggesting that the shorter sequence was better learned than the longer one. In addition, the degree of explicit sequence awareness was comparable between age groups and sequence lengths. These results, showing that 4-year-old children are able to learn 8- and 12-element-long SOC sequences as well as adults, provide further support for the hypothesis that implicit learning abilities are developmentally invariant.