Implicit Learning and Deliberate Problem Solving: What is the Connection?

Abstract

Many theoretical proposals conceptualize the acquisition of deep knowledge as a deliberate, effortful and constructive process. In contrast, research on implicit learning of artificial grammars suggests that learning is a passive, inductive process which is independent of any intention to learn and which creates knowledge not accessible to the learner. Participants are then given a new list of letter strings and are asked to identify those that are similar to the strings previously memorized. Participants perform better than chance in the test phase, implying that an abstract representation is extracted from the training phase and used in the recognition task of the test phase. If what is learned in implicit pattern learning is available for deliberate problem solving, prior implicit learning of the relevant pattern should facilitate performance on sequence extrapolation. The six number strings followed the exact same pattern as the associated letter sequence extrapolation problem.