which one of the following sentences is (are) correct? In case of there being a wrong sentence, why is it incorrect?
1. “For the study, participants learned a task where they had to recognize a hidden pattern in the questions they were asked.”
2. “For the study, participants learned a task that they had to recognize a hidden pattern in the questions they were asked.”

Question

which one of the following sentences is (are) correct? In case of there being a wrong sentence, why is it incorrect?
	1.	“For the study, participants learned a task where they had to recognize a hidden pattern in the questions they were asked.”
	2.	“For the study, participants learned a task that they had to recognize a hidden pattern in the questions they were asked.”

Answer

Where is correct.

Learned seems a strange word here. Some of them might not have learned it. More normal is “the participants were set a task…”

Answer

Only the first one is correct.

In the second one, the relative pronoun "that" is replacing "task" in the dependent clause. "That" is the subject of the clause. When a relative pronoun is the subject of a clause, you can't follow it with a subject pronoun. You could say "...a task that required them to recognize..."

You could also just divide it into two sentences.

For the study, participants learned a task. They had to recognize a hidden pattern in the questions they were asked.

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