Implicit learning from an information processing standpoint
Mark F. St. John, David R. Shanks · Oxford University Press eBooks · 1997
This chapter begins by arguing that implicit learning is not an unconscious process, and that learning is about storing instances in a superpositional memory system. It argues that earlier methods of assessing implicit learning are flawed in that they are subject to either sensitivity problems or contamination. The chapter suggests that it is more profitable to consider a different way in which implicit learning might differ from explicit learning; namely, in terms of its information-processing characteristics. It reports two experiments examining some of these characteristics. The first focuses on the question of whether people learn abstract rules or fragments in artificial grammar learning. The second asks whether there are limitations in the sorts of regularities that an implicit-learning system can learn.