Precedence of spatial pattern learning revealed by immediate reversal performance

Human participants learned to choose eight correct locations in a 4 × 4 matrix on a computer display. The locations were arranged either in a structured spatial pattern or an unstructured but consistent spatial arrangement. When the assignment of correct and incorrect locations was reversed after initial learning, participants in the spatial pattern condition demonstrated reversal performance immediately (i.e., following the first choice after reversal of the contingencies). Follow-up experiments confirmed that immediate reversal performance depends on a structured spatial pattern among the locations and that a learned motor pattern cannot explain the immediate reversal performance. This pattern of results shows that learning the spatial relations among locations has precedence over learning about the individual locations, even when the individual locations are completely valid predictive cues.

Research highlights▶ In a reversal learning paradigm, locations arranged in a structured spatial pattern produced immediate reversal performance but locations in an unstructured spatial arrangement did not. ▶ Reversal performance for stimulus sets defined by visual feature does not differ from reversal performance for stimulus sets defined by spatial location. ▶ The immediate reversal performance found with structured spatial patterns cannot be explained in terms of learned motor patterns.