Response-driven Serial Dependence: When Response Mode Consistency Matters More than Shared Memory Encoding

Abstract

Serial dependence - the bias from recent experience on present response - is often linked to shared memory representations. Yet, it remains unclear whether this bias across tasks when stimulus features are shared but response modes differ. To test this, we interleaved temporal reproduction and bisection tasks using a post-cue design that held duration encoding constant while varying motor output across trials. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we dissociated perceptual (stimulus-driven) and decisional (response-driven) components of serial dependence. With consecutive same tasks, we replicated repulsive perceptual serial dependence and attractive decisional carryover. Critically, these effects vanished across tasks, despite identical stimulus processing - suggesting that consistent motor responses, not shared memory alone, drive sequential biases. Moreover, SEM uncovered repulsive perceptual influences that standard regression missed, highlighting its power to isolate overlapping effects. Together, these findings reveal that response-specific reactivation underpins serial dependence, pointing to motor-context binding as a key factor in temporal decision-making.