Chunking, rule learning, and multiple item memory in rat interleaved serial pattern learning

Nonhuman animals, like humans, appear sensitive to the structure of the elements of sequences, perhaps even when the structure relates nonadjacent elements. In the present study, we examined the contribution of chunking, rule learning, and item memory when rats learned serial patterns composed of two interleaved subpatterns. In one group, the first interleaved subpattern was a formally simple sequence, whereas in two other groups the first subpattern was formally more complex, containing 2 or 4 violation elements, respectively. In all groups, the second interleaved subpattern encountered was formally simple. Evidence from the study suggests that rats chunked their interleaved patterns into component subpatterns, that is, they cognitively sorted pattern elements to form chunks based on nonadjacent structural relationships that can be characterized as rules. They also learned interitem associations via traditional discrimination learning to use adjacent elements as compound or configural cues for later events in the sequence. Thus, the evidence suggests that rats used chunking, rule learning, and interitem association learning concurrently to master these complex patterns.