Implicit Theories Of Learning Research Articles

Host or teacher of teaching? Examining mentors’ tacit theories of student teacher learning

This qualitative study challenges dominant and discrete understandings of preservice mentor roles and practices by positing two orientations -- “host” and “teacher of teaching” and examining their associations with mentors' ideas about student teacher learning. Drawing on data from 27 mentor teachers across four teacher education programs, we find that mentoring orientations are shaped by mentors' implicit and enacted theories of student teacher learning. Furthermore, mentors' ideas about how student teachers learn are reflected in how mentors describe their role and preferred practices. By naming implicit theories of learning that underlie mentors' practices, we can begin to understand why mentors may approach mentoring and engage with student teachers in the manner that they do.

The adaptable speaker: A theory of implicit learning in language production.

The language production system continually learns. The system adapts to recent experiences while also reflecting the experience accumulated over the lifetime. This article presents a theory that explains how speakers implicitly learn novel phonotactic patterns as they produce syllables. The learning is revealed in their speech errors. For example, if speakers produce syllable strings in which the consonant /f/ is always a syllable onset, their slips will obey this rule; /f/'s will then slip mostly to onset positions. The article reviews over 30 phenomena related to this finding. To explain phonotactic learning, the article presents four linked "mini-theories," each of which addresses components of the data. The first mini-theory, the production theory, provides an account of how speech errors arise during the assembly of word forms. The second, the learning theory, characterizes the implicit learning of phoneme distributions within the production system. The third mini-theory, the consolidation theory, augments the learning theory to explain instances in which this learning depends on a period of time, possibly a sleep period, before it is expressed. The final mini-theory, the developmental theory, addresses cases in which learning varies between children and adults, and depends on speakers' early linguistic experience. The resulting theory forges links between these diverse aspects of psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Implicit Theories of Learning as Reflected in One Upper Elementary Teacher's Talk

Strong empirical evidence exists indicating language can influence students’ beliefs about ability. Professional literature for teachers offers practical advice on how to adjust their classroom-based talk to support student achievement by orienting students toward an incremental theory of ability. Yet, little empirical work has been done to investigate how teacher talk plays out moment-to-moment within the classroom context. This study reports on a qualitative analysis of one upper elementary teacher's talk with regard to implicit theories of learning. Findings suggest teacher talk is dynamic and overlapping, operating along a continuum from entity-oriented talk to incremental-oriented talk across varied classroom situations. Additionally, a relationship was identified between teacher autonomy and the implicit theories of learning used in the teacher’s talk. Examples of varied teacher talk during classroom activities are presented, and scholarly and practical implications for language use, learning, and instruction are included.

Negotiating the Political and Pedagogical Tensions of Writing Rubrics: Using Conceptualization to Work toward Sociocultural Writing Instruction

An increased emphasis on writing standards has led many U.S. states to incorporate on-demand writing assessments into their test-based accountability system. We argue this creates political and pedagogical tensions for teachers to navigate. We discuss how rubric conceptualization (1) is a process wherein a teacher iteratively (co-)constructs meaning from a rubric’s design via classroom instruction; (2) is informed by implicit theories of learning; and (3) often requires a teacher to negotiate the competing pedagogical and political meanings of a rubric. While test-based accountability frameworks promote rubric use that equates learning with student achievement, rubric conceptualization is a process where teachers have some agency to resist behaviorist approaches to instruction.

Research on Blended Teaching Mode of College English Based on Implicit Learning Theory

This paper explores the blended teaching mode supported by the mobile learning platform through an empirical research. It aims to analyze the relevance of implicit learning theory and language sense in College English audio-visual course, it also puts forward positive strategies on implementing implicit learning theory in English learning so as to promote autonomous learning and ensure the effectiveness of teaching.

Implicit learning of symmetry of human movement and gray matter density: Evidence against pure domain general and pure domain specific theories of implicit learning

Theories of the neural basis of implicit learning postulated that specific regions were responsible for specific structures (e.g., supra-finite state) regardless of domain (e.g., vision, movement); others assumed that implicit learning was the adaptation that occurred within neural regions dealing with each domain. We explored whether people could implicitly learn to detect symmetry in biological motion, and if so, based on voxel-based morphometry (VBM), whether the learning was associated with language-related regions involved with supra-finite state grammars (such as symmetry) or motor-related regions. To explore the relevance of motor-related regions, we investigated brain structural changes in athletes compared with non-athletes and the advantage of athletes in implicit learning of action symmetry. Further, we examined whether motor imagery ability could account for the role of motor-related regions in this learning. Participants passively observed and memorized a number of biological motion sequences instantiating a symmetry rule and then judged new sequences as grammatical or not. Behaviorally, the implicit acquisition of symmetry could extend to process biological motion. Athletes showed superior classification accuracy and kinesthetic imagery ability, and gave more familiarity attributions. VBM results showed that athletes exhibited greater gray matter density in the right cerebellum, as well as the left lingual gyrus, the left precuneus, the left calcarine gyrus, and the right thalamus. Correlation analysis showed that the cerebellar gray matter density was positively associated with classification accuracy, which was mediated by kinesthetic imagery ability. Moreover, gray matter density of the left inferior frontal cortex was also positively associated with classification accuracy, indicating the involvement of regions related to symmetry learning across domains. The study provides initial evidence that implicit learning involves both adaptation within brain regions responsible for the specific domain as well as brain regions processing the same structure across domains, at least in a case of supra-finite state grammars.

Pre-service teachers’ implicit theories of learning to write

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to explore the implicit theories of pre-service teachers in learning to write. A twofold study was conducted to cover the representational level and attributional level of the implicit theories. The first study analysed the representational level of different learning theories (e.g. psycholinguistic, behaviourist, maturation, nativist, socio-cultural and constructivist). The second study explored their relationship at an attributional level by using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results support that all of the theories with a representational entity have also shown an attributional entity in pre-service teachers´ minds. Based on the findings, implications for pre-service teachers´ education are discussed.

Repeated exposure to exemplars does not enhance implicit learning: A puzzle for models of learning and memory.

We learn regularities in the world around us, frequently without conscious effort, a phenomenon known as implicit learning. These regularities are often impossible to verbalise. One example of implicit learning is the structural effect, in which participants learn a rule set combining two factors, such as lexical frequency and concreteness. Theories of implicit learning predict that repetition of exemplar words would result in improved learning of the rule set, increasing the magnitude of the structural effect. Over four experiments, we demonstrate that this is, in fact, not the case. In Experiments 1 and 2, three repetitions of exemplar words result in superior item memory, but no change in the magnitude of the structural effect, compared with individually presented words. In Experiments 3 and 4, the structural effect is shown to be invariant to five repetitions of exemplar words and at high and low numbers of exemplars. In all four experiments, participants were unable to describe the rule set underlying the structural effect. However, confidence ratings demonstrated sensitivity to the structure and this sensitivity, unlike endorsements, increased with strength. The results are discussed in reference to differentiation, structural versus judgement knowledge, and flexible learning systems.

O efeito de priming sintático na produção de sentenças ativas e passivas por crianças falantes do português brasileiro

Priming sintático é a facilitação do processamento sintático do falante que ocorre quando uma estrutura sintática é repetida através de duas (ou mais) sentenças consecutivas. É possível estimular a produção de estruturas passivas (ou de estruturas infrequentes) se for dado ao falante, em um momento anterior, um prime passivo. A frequência de produção de sentenças na voz ativa, comparativamente à produção de sentenças na voz passiva, parece ser maior nas línguas. Neste trabalho, investigamos o efeito de priming sintático com crianças de 8 e 9 anos, falantes do português brasileiro, para responder se (i) o conhecimento gramatical abstrato de estruturas ativas e passivas está consolidado em crianças de 8 e 9 anos falantes de PB (Português Brasileiro); (ii) as crianças apresentam o efeito de priming sintático e aprendem com a produção de estruturas repetidas entre prime e alvo corroborando a teoria de Implicit Learning; e (iii) se o efeito de priming sintático ocorre somente com a repetição da estrutura sentencial entre prime e alvo, sugerindo que há um componente sintático da linguagem não mediado por questões semânticas ou demais questões linguísticas na gramática mental do ser humano. O efeito de priming sintático se mostrou significativo nas sentenças passivas. As crianças apresentam conhecimento abstrato de estruturas sintáticas. No entanto, parecem ter margem para “aprender” o uso dessas estruturas, sendo sensíveis ao efeito de priming sintático.

Implicit sequence learning of chunking and abstract structures.

The current study investigated whether people can simultaneously acquire knowledge about concrete chunks and abstract structures in implicit sequence learning; and whether the degree of abstraction determines the conscious status of the acquired knowledge. We adopted three types of stimuli in a serial reaction time task in three experiments. The RT results indicated that people could simultaneously acquire knowledge about concrete chunks and abstract structures of the temporal sequence. Generation performance revealed that ability to control was mainly based on abstract structures rather than concrete chunks. Moreover, ability to control was not generally accompanied with awareness of knowing or knowledge, as measured by confidence ratings and attribution tests, confirming that people could control the use of unconscious knowledge of abstract structures. The results present a challenge to computational models and theories of implicit learning.

Rethinking models of professional learning as tools: a conceptual analysis to inform research and practice

One approach to designing, researching or evaluating professional learning experiences is to use models of learning processes. Here we analyse and critique five significant contemporary analytical models: three variations on path models, proposed by Guskey, by Desimone and by Clarke and Hollingsworth; a model using a systemic conceptualisation of learning by Opfer and Pedder; and a cognitive learning model by Evans. To do this, we develop and illustrate an analytical framework focused on model components, purposes, scope, explicit and implicit theories of learning and change processes, agency and philosophical underpinnings. We identify similarities, differences, inconsistencies and limitations in the models. This provides the basis for reconceptualising models as tools to be deployed alongside other relevant constructs and thus the analytical framework can support a more informed selection of theoretical models by researchers and practitioners.

Learning (not) to predict: Grammatical gender processing in second language acquisition

In two experiments, this article investigates the predictive processing of gender agreement in adult second language (L2) acquisition. We test (1) whether instruction on lexical gender can lead to target predictive agreement processing and (2) how variability in lexical gender representations moderates L2 gender agreement processing. In a pretest–posttest design, Experiment 1 trained 34 intermediate first language (L1) English learners of German on gender assignment. After training, the L2 group showed predictive gender processing; yet, performance correlated with accuracy in gender assignment. Experiment 1 suggests that target knowledge of lexical gender in the L2 lexicon is a prerequisite for predictive use of gender agreement in L2 syntax: Non-target gender assignment would lead to partially erroneous gender prediction such that use of gender agreement is costly for the parser and therefore abandoned. To test this account, Experiment 2 investigated predictive processing in 42 German native speakers who have target-like gender assignment and agreement. In a between-group design, one group received target input and the other received filler items with non-target gender assignment. The latter group subsequently stopped using gender agreement predictively in all experimental trials. Hence, L2 problems with gender agreement can be emulated in native processing. Taken together, the experiments suggest that variability of lexical gender assignment affects processing of gender agreement in natives and non-natives. We interpret the findings in the context of current probabilistic theories of implicit learning and processing adaptation.

Sentence processing in an artificial language: Learning and using combinatorial constraints

A study combining artificial grammar and sentence comprehension methods investigated the learning and online use of probabilistic, nonadjacent combinatorial constraints. Participants learned a small artificial language describing cartoon monsters acting on objects. Self-paced reading of sentences in the artificial language revealed comprehenders’ sensitivity to nonadjacent combinatorial constraints, without explicit awareness of the probabilities embedded in the language. These results show that even newly-learned constraints have an identifiable effect on online sentence processing. The rapidity of learning in this paradigm relative to others has implications for theories of implicit learning and its role in language acquisition.

Kindergarten and primary school children’s implicit theories of learning to write

This paper studies the process of learning to write from an insider perspective, by adopting the framework of implicit theories of learning. We interviewed 160 children attending kindergarten or primary education in public schools in Argentina (20 children from each of the eight grades from kindergarten to seventh grade). Main questions explored children’s accounts of their learning activity, learning difficulties and awareness of learning in the field of writing. The textual transcriptions of their oral responses were analysed with the lexicometric method. Results indicate an early shift from a direct theory of learning to write to an interpretative one revealing increasing complexity, dynamisation and internalisation of learning agency.

Implicit Learning of Nonlocal Musical Rules: Implicitly Learning More Than Chunks.

Dominant theories of implicit learning assume that implicit learning merely involves the learning of chunks of adjacent elements in a sequence. In the experiments presented here, participants implicitly learned a nonlocal rule, thus suggesting that implicit learning can go beyond the learning of chunks. Participants were exposed to a set of musical tunes that were all generated using a diatonic inversion. In the subsequent test phase, participants either classified test tunes as obeying a rule (direct test) or rated their liking for the tunes (indirect test). Both the direct and indirect tests were sensitive to knowledge of chunks. However, only the indirect test was sensitive to knowledge of the inversion rule. Furthermore, the indirect test was overall significantly more sensitive than the direct test, thus suggesting that knowledge of the inversion rule was below an objective threshold of awareness.

Implicit preferences: The role(s) of familiarity in the structural mere exposure effect

In four experiments using an artificial grammar (AG) learning procedure, the authors examined the links between the “classic” mere exposure effect [heightened affect for previously encountered stimulus items ( Bornstein, 1989; Zajonc, 1968)] and the “structural” mere exposure effect [greater hedonic appreciation for novel stimuli that conform to an implicitly acquired underlying rule system ( Gordon & Holyoak, 1983)]. After learning, participants: (a) classified stimuli according to whether they conformed to the principles of the grammar and, (b) rated them in terms of how much they liked them. In some experiments unusual and unfamiliar symbols were used to instantiate the AG, in others highly familiar characters were used. In all cases participants showed standard AG learning. However, whether the two exposure effects emerged was dependent on symbol familiarity. Symbols with high a priori familiarity produced a structural mere exposure effect. Moderately familiar symbols produced only the classic, but not the structural, mere exposure effect. Highly unfamiliar symbols produced neither exposure effect. Results are discussed in the context of implicit learning theory and implications for a general theory of aesthetics are presented.

Teaching and Learning Regimes: Implicit theories and recurrent practices in the enhancement of teaching and learning through educational development programmes

This paper uses the concept of teaching and learning regimes (TLRs) to help explore a set of questions about why some academic staff in universities thrive on and benefit from accredited programmes designed to improve HE learning and teaching practices ("educational development programmes") whilst others experience periods of resistance or some drop out altogether. "TLR" is a shorthand term for a constellation of rules, assumptions, practices and relationships related to teaching and learning issues in higher education. These include aspects of the following salient to teaching and learning, each of which we elaborate and illustrate in the paper: identities in interaction, power relations, codes of signification, tacit assumptions, rules of appropriateness, recurrent practices, discursive repertoires, implicit theories of learning and of teaching. The argument presented here is that academic staff on educational development programmes ("participants") bring to programmes sets of assumptions and practices rooted in TLRs. Educational development programmes themselves instantiate TLRs which may be more, or less, compatible with those of individual participants. Where there are incongruities between the two they need not be fatal if participants are able to, or are encouraged to, surface and reflect on previously tacit assumptions embedded in their TLRs. Similarly, there may not be a problem if participants are able to exercise discretion over the application of aspects of different regimes; applying them in different contexts as appropriate. Evidence from participants' writing, participant observation, secondary sources and data from eight interviews inform the paper and form the basis for illustrative vignettes.

Constructivism: The Career and Technical Education Perspective

For over three-quarters of a century, the implicit learning theory underlying the curriculum and pedagogy of career and technical education has been behaviorism, but the emerging theory of constructivism may have implications for career and technical education practice in the future. Preparation of workers for entry into and advancement in the workplace of the next decade requires an educational program that provides not only job skills, as career and technical education did throughout the 1900s, but also higher order thinking, problem solving, and collaborative work skills. Classical behaviorist theory does not adequately address the latter kinds of learning, but constructivist theory may. Constructivist principles are examined in light of the fundamental requirements of career and technical education as we move into the new century with a new name for a redesigned profession. Of the three basic types of constructivism discussed, cognitive constructivism is most compatible with career and technical education. The authors recommend a more thorough examination of the relative efficacy of behaviorism and cognitive constructivism to serve as the learning theory on which to base career and technical education in the future. To embrace such a foundational change, leaders in the profession must re-think many of the fundamental assumptions underlying the mission, curriculum, and pedagogy of career and technical education. Perhaps such a rethinking is due.

An evolutionary context for the cognitive unconscious

Abstract This paper is an attempt to put the work of the past several decades on the problems of implicit learning and unconscious cognition into an evolutionary context. Implicit learning is an inductive process whereby knowledge of a complex environment is acquired and used largely independently of awareness of either the process of acquisition or the nature of that which has been learned. Characterized this way, implicit learning theory can be viewed as an attempt to come to grips with the classic epistemological issues of knowledge acquisition, representation and use. The argument is made that the process, despite its seeming cognitive sophistication, is of considerable evolutionary antiquity and that it antedates awareness and the capacity for conscious control of mentation. Various classic heuristics from evolutionary biology are used to substantiate this claim and several specific entailments of this line of argument are outlined.

Implicit and explicit learning: Individual differences and IQ.

We explored the degree to which individual differences in performance were observed in a group of subjects who worked with two different tasks: one implicit and one explicit. The implicit task was a standard artificial grammar-learning task; the explicit was a series-completion problem-solving task. Substantial individual differences were found between subjects on the explicit task; relatively small individual differences were found on the implicit task. Moreover, performance on the explicit task correlated strongly with intelligence quotient, but performance on the implicit task did not. Data from previous experiments were also found to be in agreement with these results. The findings are presented in the context of a general theory of implicit learning proposed recently by Reber (1989a, in press) that derives from considerations of the evolution of cognitive processes. This evolutionary model argues that unconscious, implicit induction systems are evolutionarily older and antedate conscious, explicit learning processes, and that this antiquity carries with it particular patterns of function that differentiate implicit processes from explicit processes.