IMPLICIT (AND EXPLICIT) LEARNING - ACTING ADAPTIVELY WITHOUT KNOWING THE CONSEQUENCES

Subjects exposed to members of a structured domain become sensitive to the general structure of that domain, even when unaware that the doma in has such structure. Numerous investigators have taken this as evide nce for a mode of learning in which memory passively and unselectively absorbs the structure of the environment. The authors contend that th is assumption miscasts the fundamental nature of learning. The authors demonstrate that even when task and stimulus structure are held const ant, subjects react to variations in incidental stimulus properties by processing the stimuli in qualitatively different ways. The authors c onclude that implicit learning, just like explicit learning, proceeds through active organization of the stimulus complex, rather than throu gh passive absorption of any level of structure. The authors propose a synthesis in which learning, with and without awareness, is understoo d through a common set of principles.