Figure 1 .

Task and design of the experiment. (A) Stimulus presentation in the ASRT task. A dog’s head appeared in one of the 4 positions. Stimuli appeared in either a pattern (P) or a random (r) position, creating an 8-item long alternating sequence structure. (B) High- and low-probability triplets. Due to the alternating sequence structure, some runs of consecutive stimuli (called triplets) occurred with a higher probability than others. Every trial was defined as the third element of a high- or a low-probability triplet, based on the 2 preceding trials. High-probability triplets can be formed by 2 patterns and 1 random element, but also by 2 random and 1 pattern element. (C) Proportion of high- and low-probability triplets. High-probability triplets occurred in 62.5% of all trials (of which 50% came from pattern elements, i.e., from P-r-P structure, and 12.5% came from random elements, that is, from the r-P-r structure, by chance). Low-probability triplets occurred in the remaining 37.5% of all trials (of which each individual low-probability triplet occurred with a 12.5% probability by chance, originating only from the r-P-r structure). (D) Design of the study. In the different instruction phase, different instructions were given to the 2 groups. After 4 epochs (each containing 5 blocks) of the ASRT task, and a 10 min long rest period, the instruction changed. In the fifth epoch (containing 5 blocks of stimuli), the same instruction was given to all of the participants (same instruction phase).