Hilde Haider

• Professor (Full) at University of Cologne

Sequence learning in the serial response time task (SRTT) is one of few learning phenomena where researchers agree that such learning may proceed in the absence of awareness, while it is also possible to explicitly learn a sequence of events. In the past few decades, research into sequence learning largely focused on the type of representation that...

Sequence learning in the serial response time task (SRTT) is one of few learning phenomena where researchers agree that such learning may proceed in the absence of awareness while it is also possible to explicitly learn a sequence of events. In the past few decades, research into sequence learning largely focused on the type of representation that...

Sequence learning in the serial response time task (SRTT) is one of few learning phenomena where researchers agree that such learning may proceed in the absence of awareness while it is also possible to explicitly learn a sequence of events. In the past few decades, research into sequence learning largely focused on the type of representation that...

Sequence learning in the serial response time task (SRTT) is one of the few learning phenomena that are widely agreed to be implicit in nature (i.e., that learning may proceed in the absence of awareness), while it is also possible to explicitly learn a sequence of events. In the past few decades, research into sequence learning largely focused on...

With attentional mechanisms, humans select and de-select information from the environment. But does selective attention modulate implicit learning? We tested whether the implicit acquisition of contingencies between features are modulated by the task-relevance of those features. We implemented the contingencies in a novel variant of the contextual...

Sequence learning in the serial response time task (SRTT) is one of the few learning phenomena that are widely agreed to be implicit in nature (i.e., that learning may proceed in the absence of awareness). Evidently, it is also possible to explicitly learn a sequence of events. In the past few decades, research into sequence learning largely focuse...

Recent findings suggest that in dual-tasking the elements of the two tasks are associated across tasks and are stored in a conjoint memory episode, meaning that the tasks are not represented as isolated task-sets. In the current study, we tested whether frequent long stimulus onset ansynchronies (SOAs) can foster the representation of two separated...

Many researchers in the field of implicit statistical learning agree that there does not exist one general implicit learning mechanism, but rather, that implicit learning takes place in highly specialized encapsulated modules. However, the exact representational content of these modules is still under debate. While there is ample evidence for a dis...

The ability to anticipate the sensory consequences of our actions (i.e., action–effects) is known to be important for intentional action initiation and control. Learned action–effects can select the responses that previously have been associated with them. What has been largely unexplored is how learned action–effect associations can aid action sel...

Dual-systems theories of sequence learning assume that sequence learning may proceed within a unidimensional learning system that is immune to cross-dimensional interference because information is processed and represented in dimension-specific, encapsulated modules. Important evidence for such modularity comes from studies investigating the absenc...

Abstract: Based on the theory of automated and controlled processing of fluency and Levelt'stheory of speech production, writing fluency and reading fluency were each defined as two-dimensional constructs. Writing fluency is composed of automatised transcription andattention-demanding translation, while reading fluency is composed of automatised re...

Fluency of processing has shown to influence recognition judgments. Fluency most commonly induces a liberal response bias to judge fluently processed information as well-known because knowledge of a high correlation between the frequency of encounters, memory strength, and thus fluency of processing has been acquired in the past. In this study, we...

The usual way of thinking about dual-tasking is that the participants represent the two tasks separately. However, several findings suggest that the participants rather seem to integrate the elements of both tasks into a conjoint episode. In three experiments, we aimed at further testing this task integration account in dual-tasking. To this end, w...

While past work on how people can optimize dual-tasking has focused on strategic timing (i.e., when to select responses), little is known about the extent to which people can optimize dual-tasking by taking care of which responses they select. Here we test whether spatial (in)congruency influences response selection in free-choice trials. In two ex...

This article aims to continue the debate on how explicit, conscious knowledge can arise in an implicit learning situation. We review hitherto existing theoretical views and evaluate their compatibility with two current, successful scientific concepts of consciousness: The Global Workspace Theory and Higher-Order Thought Theories. In this context, w...

We expand the usually cross-sectional perspective on dual-tasking performance toinclude both intra- and interpersonal variability, which should capture within-persondynamics and psychological processes better. Two simple tasks, first as single-, then as dualtasks, were performed by 58 participants over 20 session. We found positive relationships be...

Dual-task costs might result from confusions on the task-set level as both tasks are not represented as distinct task-sets, but rather being integrated into a single task-set. This suggests that events in the two tasks are stored and retrieved together as an integrated memory episode. In a series of three experiments, we tested for such integrated...

Dual-task costs might reflect a direct consequence of confusions on the task-set level as both tasks are integrated into a single task-set, instead of two separate task-sets. In order to prevent this integration-driven interference, the two task streams have to be separated. Under three experimental conditions we investigated whether in a dual-task...

Some studies in implicit learning investigate the mechanisms by which implicitly acquired knowledge (e.g., learning a sequence of responses) becomes consciously aware. It has been suggested that unexpected changes in the own behavior can trigger search processes, of which the outcome then becomes aware. A consistent empirical finding is that partic...

A frequent observation in dual-tasking is that spatially or conceptually (in)compatible Task 2 response features can interfere with responses in Task 1 (backward crosstalk effect; BCE). Such between-task interference is, at least to some degree, under strategic control. It has been shown that the size of the BCE can be modulated by instructions, co...

Even after a long time of research on dual-tasking, the question whether the two tasks are always processed serially (response selection bottleneck models, RSB) or also in parallel (capacity-sharing models) is still going on. The first models postulate that the central processing stages of two tasks cannot overlap, producing a central processing bo...

Research on the limitations of dual-tasking might profit from using setups with a predictable sequence of stimuli and responses and assessing the acquisition of this sequence. Detrimental effects of dual-tasking on implicit sequence learning in the serial reaction time task (SRTT; Nissen & Bullemer, 1987) – when paired with an uncorrelated task – h...

Sequential skill learning with practice is fundamental to human activity (e.g., tying shoes). Given the lack of prior knowledge in most participants, Origami folding is a promising task to study the acquisition of a sequential skill. While previous Origami folding studies mainly dealt with the question, which forms of instruction can lead to better...

While detrimental effects of dual-tasking on the acquisition and usage of sequence knowledge in the Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) have been attributed to the integration of regularly and randomly sequenced events, direct evidence for across-task integration has been scarce. In two experiments, we paired two spatial tasks: A visual-manual SRTT (s...

Cognitive and motor memory loads can affect sequential skills. Differentiating the execution and the acquisition of sequential skills, we studied the impact of cognitive or motoric dual-task loads on performance in Origami folding and changes with practice. Participants (N = 53) folded five Origami figures for four times each, which were randomly p...

An important question in implicit sequence learning research is how the learned information is represented. In earlier models, the representations underlying implicit learning were viewed as being either purely motor or perceptual. These different conceptions were later integrated by multidimensional models such as the Dual System Model of Keele et...

The constraints in overlapping response selection have been established in dual-tasking studies with random sequence of stimuli and responses as well as random stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). While this approach makes it possible to control for advance activation of upcoming stimuli or responses, it leaves open whether such preparatory processing...

Many studies have documented that multitasking reduces Response Time (RT) indicators of implicit sequence learning as well as the expression of acquired sequence knowledge in RT benefits. In these tasks it is only relevant that the correct key is hit quickly, not where it is hit. We explored how variability in response location is influenced by (a)...

One often replicated finding is that implicit sequence learning is hampered in dual-task situations. Thus, one crucial question has been whether implicit learning processes require attentional resources. Meanwhile, focusing exclusively on limited attentional resources might be considered as too unspecific. Overall, the focus lies now rather on the...

In implicit learning, task-redundant response-effects can enhance the development of explicit knowledge. Here, we investigated whether learning a fixed sequence of effects (stimuli occurring immediately after the participant's keypress, but are not mapped to the identity of the respective response) influence the development of explicit rather than...

Different studies have shown that action-effect associations seem to enhance implicit learning of motor sequences. In a recent study (Haider et al., Conscious Cognit 26:145-161, 2014), we found indications that action-effect learning might play a special role in acquiring explicit knowledge within an implicit learning situation. The current study a...

Typing is an everyday activity that requires people to use the correct serial order of phonological and orthographic forms of words. The evidence until now shows that different forms of representation of serial order have mixed contributions to typing performance. It is not clear whether and how representational overlap between subsequent words imp...

Everyday multitasking often is characterized by predictable sequences. While such sequential regularities are present in setups using the Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT), many laboratory studies on dual-tasking performance use random sequences of stimuli in either of the two tasks. In the current study, following single-task training on the SRTT,...

In implicit sequence learning, a process-dissociation (PD) approach has been proposed to dissociate implicit and explicit learning processes. Applied to the popular generation task, participants perform two different task versions: inclusion instructions require generating the transitions that form the learned sequence; exclusion instructions requi...

Writing competence is one of the key competencies in a highly literate society. Studies of the writing process are, compared to the study of reading, still rare with a low impact on test development and writing education. With the development of research tools such as keystroke logging or 'digital ink' to record handwriting, insights into the writi...

Symposium: Insights in the writing process: From transcription to writing fluency to text quality. Chair: Markus Linnemann (University of Koblenz, Germany) Writing competence is one of the key competencies in a highly literate society. Studies of the writing process are, compared to the study of reading, still rare with a low impact on test develo...

Have you ever thought about what it means not to act? Basically, most people think about nonactions (or "not responding") as depending on the existence of a pre-activated response which is then inhibited. The main problem when investigating the characteristics of such no-go responses is that they do not provide reaction times. Importantly, Miller (...

The Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) is an important paradigm to study the properties of unconscious learning processes. One specifically interesting and still controversially discussed topic are the conditions under which unconsciously acquired knowledge becomes conscious knowledge. The different assumptions about the underlying mechanisms can con...

According to the Theory of Event Coding (TEC; Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001), action and perception are represented in a shared format in the cognitive system by means of feature codes. In implicit sequence learning research, it is still common to make a conceptual difference between independent motor and perceptual sequences. This...

We are an intensely creative species. Creativity is the fountainhead of our civilizations and a defining characteristic of what makes us human. But for all its prominence at the apex of human mental faculties, we know next to nothing about how brains generate creative ideas. With all previous attempts to tighten the screws on this vexed problem uns...

In implicit sequence learning, a process-dissociation (PD) approach has been proposed to dissociate implicit and explicit learning processes. Applied to the popular generation task, participants perform two different task versions: inclusion instructions require generating the transitions that form the learned sequence; exclusion instructions requi...

How can we enhance the understanding of abstract mathematical principles in elementary school? Different studies found out that nonsymbolic estimation could foster subsequent exact number processing and simple arithmetic. Taking the commutativity principle as a test case, we investigated if the approximate calculation of symbolic commutative quanti...

We investigated potential biases affecting the validity of the process-dissociation (PD) procedure when applied to sequence learning. Participants were or were not exposed to a serial reaction time task (SRTT) with two types of pseudo-random materials. Afterwards, participants worked on a free or cued generation task under inclusion and exclusion i...

Creative thinking is arguably the pinnacle of cerebral functionality. Like no other mental faculty, it has been omnipotent in transforming human civilizations. Probing the neural basis of this most extraordinary capacity, however, has been doggedly frustrated. Despite a flurry of activity in cognitive neuroscience, recent reviews have shown that th...

One crucial feature of expertise is the ability to spontaneously recognize where and when knowledge can be applied to simplify task processing. Mental arithmetic is one domain in which people should start to develop such expert knowledge in primary school by integrating conceptual knowledge about mathematical principles and procedural knowledge abo...

Implicit learning is one of the most fundamental learning mechanisms that enables humans to adapt to regularities inherent in the environment. Despite its high flexibility, it depends on constraints, such as selective attention. Here, we focused on the stimulus-to-response binding which defines the dimensions of the stimuli and the responses partic...

Flexibly spotting and applying shortcut options in arithmetic is often a major challenge for children as well as adults. Recent work suggests that children benefit in terms of such flexibility from tasks requiring estimation or other operations with quantities that they cannot easily enumerate. Such tasks often require comparison of quantities by f...

One crucial issue in mathematics development is how children come to spontaneously apply arithmetical principles (e.g. commutativity). According to expertise research, well-integrated conceptual and procedural knowledge is required. Here, we report a method composed of two independent tasks that assessed in an unobtrusive manner the spontaneous use...

Based on research on expertise a person can be said to possess integrated conceptual knowledge when she/he is able to spontaneously identify task relevant information in order to solve a problem efficiently. Despite the lack of instruction or explicit cueing, the person should be able to recognize which shortcut strategy can be applied - even when...

Although the existence of implicit motor learning is now widely accepted, the findings concerning perceptual implicit learning are ambiguous. Some researchers have observed perceptual learning whereas other authors have not. The review of the literature provides different reasons to explain this ambiguous picture, such as differences in the underly...

Implicit learning, i.e. knowledge acquisition in incidental learning situations, is a fundamental feature of the human mind. The extraction of (and subsequent adaptation to) regular patterns in the environment facilitates everyday actions. The cognitive and neural processes accompanying the transition from subconscious (implicit) to verbally report...

In routine sequential behavior, we sometimes become aware of having committed an error. However, often we do not. Here, we investigated the processes underlying conscious error detection within a typing paradigm. Our assumption according to the Discrepancy-Attribution hypothesis is that the (explicit) judgment of having made an error is due to a pe...

Traditionally, the medial temporal lobe (MTL) was linked to explicit or declarative memory in associative learning. However, recent studies have reported MTL involvement even when volunteers are not consciously aware of the learned contingencies. Therefore, the mechanism of the MTL-related learning process cannot be described sufficiently by the ex...

A long lasting debate in the field of implicit learning is whether participants can learn without acquiring conscious knowledge. One crucial problem is that no clear criterion exists allowing to identify participants who possess explicit knowledge. Here, we propose a method to diagnose during a serial reaction time task those participants who acqui...

In incidental learning situations, contingencies are extracted from the environment without the intention to learn and can change behavior without awareness for the extracted regularity. The development of explicit access to the learned regularity is an important learning mechanism that is rarely examined. With a series of behavioral, electroenceph...

To pursue goal directed behavior, the cognitive system must be shielded against interference from irrelevant information. Aside from the online adjustment of cognitive control widely discussed in the literature, an additional mechanism of preventive goal shielding is suggested that circumvents irrelevant information from being processed in the firs...

One major assumption in the field of implicit learning is that implicit learning processes directly affect performance without further top-down control (e.g., Destrebecqz and Cleeremans 2003). In three related experiments, the authors tested the so-called "Not Letting Go Phenomenon" (Schneider and Fisk in J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 8:261-278, 198...

According to the Unexpected-Event Hypothesis (UEH) (Frensch, Haider, Rünger, Neugebauer, Voigt & Werg, 2002), conflicts between expected and actually performed behaviors trigger attribution processes and ultimately lead to the ability to verbally report an incidentally experienced sequential regularity. In two experiments, we manipulated the likeli...

Goal-directed behavior requires the cognitive system to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. The authors show that task sets help to shield the system from irrelevant information. Participants had to respond to eight different colored word stimuli under different instruction conditions. They either had to learn the stimulus-resp...

Switch costs occur whenever participants are asked to switch between two or more task sets. In a typical task switching experiment, participants have to switch between two task sets composed of up to four different stimuli per task set. These 2 (task sets) x 4 (stimuli) contain only 8 different stimulus-response (S-R) mappings, and the question is...

One of the most challenging issues in the field of creativity is finding an approach conducent to understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying insight. We propose investigating the process of insight within the context of implicit learning paradigms. The training tasks in implicit learning paradigms are regularly constructed and, al...

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were investigated to find precursors of insightful behavior. Participants had to process successive pairs in strings of digits to obtain a final response in each trial. Within the sequence of five responses required in each trial, the last two responses mirrored the two preceding ones. This hidden regularity, allowin...

In 2 experiments, the authors compare stimulus-based versus task-rule-based task performance. Participants practiced 8 stimulus-response mappings either with or without knowledge about 2 underlying task sets. After practice, 2 transfer blocks with 8 new stimuli were presented. Results show that rule knowledge leads to significant switch and transfe...

In this article, the authors investigate the assumption that preparation while switching between cognitive tasks is dynamically adjusted to the current task demands. Performance in high-shift blocks (75% shifts) was compared with performance in high-repetition blocks (75% repetitions). This probability information was given either at the beginning...

The present research investigates the role of voluntary, conscious processing in strategy change. In 2 experiments, we address whether the switch to a new strategy is the result of data-driven, automatic processes or of voluntary processes. Experiment 1 demonstrates that participants performing an alphabet verification task are able to (a) transfer...

The purpose of the present experiments was to investigate the generation of conscious awareness (i.e., of verbal report) in an incidental learning situation. While the single-system account assumes that all markers of learning, verbal or nonverbal, index the same underlying knowledge representation, multiple-systems accounts grant verbal report a s...

The detection of unexpected events is a fundamental process of learning. Theories of cognitive control and previous imaging results indicate a prominent role of the prefrontal cortex in the evaluation of the congruency between expected and actual outcome. In most cases, this attributed function is based on results where the person is consciously aw...

In a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we demonstrated an involvement of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) during an implicit learning task. We concluded that the MTL was engaged because of the complex contingencies that were implicitly learned. In addition, the basal ganglia demonstrated effects of a paralleled proceduraliza...

Insight denotes a mental restructuring that leads to a sudden gain of explicit knowledge allowing qualitatively changed behaviour. Anecdotal reports on scientific discovery suggest that pivotal insights can be gained through sleep. Sleep consolidates recent memories and, concomitantly, could allow insight by changing their representational structur...

Endogenously initiated transitions between tasks are associated with inhibition of the attentional set for the task preceding the transition, as demonstrated by slowed reactions to a task most recently switched away from (U. Mayr & S. W. Keele, 2000). Using an altered methodological approach, the authors found that this backward inhibition countera...

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) has been associated with declarative learning of flexible relational rules and the basal ganglia with implicit learning of stimulus-response mappings. It remains an open question of whether MTL or basal ganglia are involved when learning flexible relational contingencies without awareness. We studied learning of an ex...

The purpose of the investigations was to dissociate processes of task preparation from task execution in the task-switching paradigm. The basic assumption was that task repetitions have 2 advantages over task shifts: an activation advantage as a result of the execution of the same task type in the pretrial, and an expectation advantage, because par...

The purpose of the investigations was to dissociate processes of task preparation from task execution in the task-switching paradigm. The basic assumption was that task repetitions have 2 advantages over task shifts: an activation advantage as a result of the execution of the same task type in the pretrial, and an expectation advantage, because par...

The power law of practice is often considered a benchmark test for theories of cognitive skill acquisition. Recently, P. F. Delaney, L. M. Reder, J. J. Staszewski, and F. E. Ritter (1998), T. J. Palmeri (1999), and T. C. Rickard (1997, 1999) have challenged its validity by showing that empirical data can systematically deviate from power-function f...

The power law of practice is often considered a benchmark test for theories of cognitive skill acquisition. Recently, P. F. Delaney, L. M. Reder, J. J. Staszewski, and F. E. Ritter (1998), T. J. Palmeri (1999), and T. C. Rickard (1997, 1999) have challenged its validity by showing that empirical data can systematically deviate from power-function f...

Insight problem solving is characterized by impasses, states of mind in which the thinker does not know what to do next. The authors hypothesized that impasses are broken by changing the problem representation, and 2 hypothetical mechanisms for representational change are described: the relaxation of constraints on the solution and the decompositio...

H. Haider and P. A. Frensch's (1996) information reduction hypothesis holds that with practice, people learn to distinguish task-relevant from task-redundant information and to ignore task-irrelevant information. In 2 experiments, the authors examined whether degree of information reduction can be directly affected by task instruction. Participants...

Two experiments tested H. Haider and P. A. Frensch's (1996) information-reduction hypothesis that people learn, with practice, to distinguish between task-relevant and task-redundant information and to limit their processing to task-relevant information. Participants verified alphabetic strings (e.g., "E [4] J K U") containing task-relevant and tas...

According to most current theories, it is assumed that skill acquisition is based on a continuous and data-driven learning Process. Our main goal in the Present article is to demonstrate that these assumptions are severely limited. A review of the main theories of cognitive skill acquisition is followed by a summary of our own research on the topic...

Theories of skill acquisition assume that the effects of practice on task performance are due to either qualitative changes in the task structure, an increased efficiency of performing individual task components, an increased efficiency of performing sequences of task components, or some combination of these mechanisms. We propose an extension to t...

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