Implicit artificial grammar learning : effects of complexity and usefulness of the structure
Esther van den Bos, Esther Josephine · 2007
The artificial grammar learning experiments reported in this thesis pertain to the question of whether implicit learning is ineluctable and unselective or selective and accidental. The results of Chapter 2 showed that implicit learning was negatively affected by complexity, suggesting that the process does not automatically acquire any structure present in the environment. Chapter 3 provided direct evidence that implicit learning is selective. When two aspects of the structure could facilitate the participants’ task in the induction phase, only the most useful aspect was selected and learned implicitly. Chapter 4 showed that explicit learning could be more successful than implicit learning when participants were specifically instructed to look for rules of letter-order. In Chapter 5, implicit learning was demonstrated when the structure was useful to the participants’ induction task, but not when it was useless. This finding was replicated in 10 to 11-year-old children in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 showed that the negative effect of complexity could not be counterbalanced by adding a semantic reference field. These findings indicate that implicit learning is a selective process that does not occur ineluctably. Rather than being accidental, however, implicit learning seems to occur whenever the structure is useful to one’s current task.