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The ubiquitous finding in statistical learning research is a performance benefit for regular versus irregular properties of the environment. This regularity benefit is commonly interpreted to emerge from a mechanism that detects and subsequently exploits the regularity as it would be impossible for irregular events. Here, in the temporal domain, we show that this interpretation overlooks the influence of learning various time-related factors that contribute to the regularity benefit. Instead of only learning the temporal regularity, participants exploited the temporal properties of targets that we initially considered as irregular and uninformative. Participants temporally prepared, in parallel, for different actions to perform and locations to attend, irrespective of target’s regularity. In fact, this temporal preparation explained regularity benefits without assuming statistical learning of the regular target. Using a computational model,fMTP, we illustrate that such adaptation can arise from associative memory processes underlying temporal preparation.

Complex, goal-directed and time-critical movements require the processing of temporal features in sensory information as well as the fine-tuned temporal interplay of several effectors. Temporal estimates used to produce such behavior may thus be obtained through perceptual or motor processes. To disentangle the two options, we tested whether adaptation to a temporal perturbation in an interval reproduction task transfers to interval reproduction tasks with varying sensory information (visual appearance of targets, modality, virtual reality (VR) environment or real-world) or varying movement types (continuous arm movements or brief clicking movements). Halfway through the experiments we introduced a temporal perturbation, such that continuous pointing movements were artificially slowed down in VR, causing participants to adapt their behavior to sustain performance. In four experiments, we found that sensorimotor adaptation to temporal perturbations is independent of environment context and movement type, but modality specific. Our findings suggest that motor errors induced by temporal sensorimotor adaptation affect the modality specific perceptual processing of temporal estimates.