The roles of two task parameters, sequence length (N) and number of alternatives in the population from which the sequence was drawn (K), were examined in a tracking task. The tasks were irregular step-function inputs wherein N was defined as the number of targets (steps) in a repeating sequence and K was defined as the number of alternative target positions. N and K were varied independently in a 3 × 3 factorial design with 9 Ss per cell. The major findings were that tracking performance, as measured by integrated error scores, is affected by increases in N, but not proportionately, while neither K nor the N × K interaction was significant. Relations of the results to verbal learning data are discussed.
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