Implicit learning of artificial grammars

Abstract

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the process by which Ss respond to the statistical nature of the stimulus array, a process defined as “implicit learning”. An artificial grammar was used to generate the stimuli. Experiment I showed that Ss learned to become increasingly sensitive to the grammatical structure of the stimuli, but little was revealed about the nature of such learning. Experiment II showed that information gathered about the grammar in a memorization task could be extended to a recognition task with new stimuli. Various analyses of the data strongly implied that Ss were learning to respond to the general grammatical nature of the stimuli, rather than learning to respond according to specific coding systems imposed upon the stimuli. It was argued that this “implicit” learning is similar in nature to the “differentiation” process of perceptual learning espoused by Gibson and Gibson (1955) .