THE ROLE OF IMPLICIT MEMORY IN CONTROLLING A DYNAMIC SYSTEM

The relationship between implicit memory and implicit learning is expl ored. Dienes and Fahey (1995) showed that learning to control a dynami c system was mediated by a look-up table consisting of previously succ essful responses to specific situations. The experiment reported in th is paper showed that facilitated performance on old situations was ind ependent of the subjects' ability to recognize those situations as old , suggesting that memory was implicit. Further analyses of the Dienes and Fahey data replicated this independence of control performance on recognition. However, unlike the implicit memory revealed on fragment completion tasks, successful performance on the dynamic control tasks was remarkably resilient to modality shifts. The results are discussed in terms of models of implicit learning and the nature of implicit me mory.