Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

A recent approach in cognitive science argues that prediction is a core concept underlying cognition, to the extent thatbrains could be referred to as ”prediction machines” (Clark, 2013). Extending experimental paradigms to explore predictionfacilitate tests of this claim. In a previous study we introduced a statistical learning paradigm to detect when participants arepredicting during implicit/explicit learning. The results revealed that participants tend to rapidly switch into a predictive modealmost as a discrete strategy. While this intriguing possibility was not directly explored in the original study, in this project werepurposed the task to explicitly explore the onset of predictive behaviors. Through a mouse-tracking task, participants get tolearn the statistical structure in a sequence of flashing dots while their mouse movements are being recorded. Findings revealthe level of statistical structure in the environment that triggers the rapid onset of predictive behavior in participants.