What’s your number? The effects of trial order on the one-target advantage

When moving our upper-limb towards a single target, movement times are typically shorter than when movement to a second target is required. This is known as the one-target advantage. Most studies that have demonstrated the one-target advantage have employed separate trial blocks for the one- and two-segment movements. To test if the presence of the one-target advantage depends on advance knowledge of the number of segments, the present study investigated whether the one-target advantage would emerge under different trial orders/sequences. One- and two-segment responses were organized in blocked (i.e., 1-1-1, 2-2-2), alternating (i.e., 1-2-1-2-1-2), and random (i.e., 1-1-2-1-2-2) trial sequences. Similar to previous studies, where only blocked schedules have typically been utilized, the one-target advantage emerged during the blocked and alternate conditions, but not in the random condition. This finding indicates that the one-target advantage is contingent on participants knowing the number of movement segments prior to stimulus onset.