2005 ImplicitLearning

• (Shanks, 2005) ⇒ David R. Shanks. (2005). “Implicit Learning.” In: K. Lamberts and R. Goldstone, Handbook of Cognition.

Subject Headings: Implicit Learning Task.

Quotes

• Implicit learning is generally characterized as learning that proceeds both unintentionally and unconsciously. Here are some examples:
  • 1 Reber (1967), who coined the term ‘implicit learning’, asked participants to study a series of letter strings such as VXVS for a few seconds each. Then he told them that these strings were all constructed according to a particular set of rules (that is, a grammar; see Figure 8.1) and that in the test phase they would see some new strings and would have to decide which ones conformed to the same rules and which ones did not. Participants could make these decisions with better-than-chance accuracy but had little ability to describe the rules. For example, participants could not recall correctly which letters began and ended the strings. Reber described his results as a ‘peculiar combination of highly efficient behavior with complex stimuli and almost complete lack of verbalizable knowledge about them’ (p. 859).
  • 2 In the 1950s, a number of studies asked people to generate words ad libitum and established that the probability with which they would produce, say, plural nouns was increased if each such word was reinforced by the experimenter saying ‘umhmm’ (e.g. Greenspoon, 1955). This result occurred in subjects apparently unable to report the reinforcement contingency.
  • 3 Svartdal (1991) presented participants with brief trains of between 4 and 17 auditory clicks. Participants immediately had to press a response button exactly the same number of times and were instructed that feedback would be presented when the number of presses matched the number of clicks. In fact, though, feedback was contingent on speed of responding: for some.

References

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	Author	volume	Date Value	title	type	journal	titleUrl	doi	note	year
2005 ImplicitLearning	David R. Shanks			Implicit Learning			http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/david.shanks/Implicit learning review chapter.pdf