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. 2023 May 4;6(1):25. doi: 10.5334/joc.275

Figure 1.

Figure 1 An illustration of a trial sequence execution that was chunked differently across four different iterations of execution. In the first iteration, trials 1 to 6 form chunk 1 and trials 7 to 10 form chunk 2. In the second iteration, the execution is parsed into 3 chunks (trials 1 to 4, trials 5 to 8 and trials 9 and 10). In the third iteration, trials 1 to 3, 4 to 7 and 8 to 10 form chunks 1 to 3. In the fourth iteration, trials 1 to 2, 3 to 8 and 9 to 10 form chunks 1 to 3. If RT peaks at the beginning of new chunks, then the RT pattern will vary across executions that are chunked differently, e.g., trial 7 will show a peak in iteration 1 but not in iteration 2 whereas trial 5 will show a peak in iteration 2 but not in iteration 1. Averaging such RT patterns will smudge the peaks. If the RT patterns are very variable, averaging will show a gradually increasing RT across trials 2 to 10 because the probability of having a peak increases with trial position.

An illustration of a trial sequence execution that was chunked differently across four different iterations of execution. In the first iteration, trials 1 to 6 form chunk 1 and trials 7 to 10 form chunk 2. In the second iteration, the execution is parsed into 3 chunks (trials 1 to 4, trials 5 to 8 and trials 9 and 10). In the third iteration, trials 1 to 3, 4 to 7 and 8 to 10 form chunks 1 to 3. In the fourth iteration, trials 1 to 2, 3 to 8 and 9 to 10 form chunks 1 to 3. If RT peaks at the beginning of new chunks, then the RT pattern will vary across executions that are chunked differently, e.g., trial 7 will show a peak in iteration 1 but not in iteration 2 whereas trial 5 will show a peak in iteration 2 but not in iteration 1. Averaging such RT patterns will smudge the peaks. If the RT patterns are very variable, averaging will show a gradually increasing RT across trials 2 to 10 because the probability of having a peak increases with trial position.