Involvement of working memory in college students’ sequential pattern learning and performance

When learning highly organized sequential patterns of information, humans and nonhuman animals learn rules regarding the hierarchical structures of these sequences. In three experiments, we explored the role of working memory in college students’ sequential pattern learning and performance in a computerized task involving a sequential multiple-choice paradigm. In Experiment 1, we explored whether working memory was necessary to abstract the structure of sequential patterns both with and without violations of pattern structure. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether working memory was necessary for accurate pattern performance after patterns with and without violations to pattern structure were learned well. Results indicated working memory was necessary for abstracting the rule describing overall pattern structure for patterns both with and without a violation of pattern structure. Further, once the pattern was well learned, working memory was required only for accurate performance of patterns containing a violation of pattern structure. In Experiment 3, we evaluated whether occupying working memory impaired participants’ ability to track their location within a sequence while performing the sequence or impaired their ability to abstract the rule governing the sequence. Results suggested that occupying working memory impaired participants’ ability to learn the rule describing the sequence.

► We explored the role of working memory in sequential pattern learning.
► Working memory is required to abstract pattern structure from ordered sequences.
► Later, working memory was required only for performing patterns with rule violations.