Learning without consciously knowing: Evidence from event-related potentials in sequence learning (original) (raw)
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Implicit sequence learning and conscious awareness
Consciousness and Cognition, 2008
This paper uses the Process Dissociation Procedure to explore whether people can acquire unconscious knowledge in the serial reaction time task . Can sequence learning be implicit? New evidence with the Process Dissociation Procedure. ]. Experiment 1 showed that people generated legal sequences above baseline levels under exclusion instructions. Reward moved exclusion performance towards baseline, indicating that the extent of motivation in the test phase influenced the expression of unconscious knowledge. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that even with reward, adding noise to the sequences or shortening training led to above-baseline exclusion performance, suggesting that task difficulty and the amount of training also affected the expression of unconscious knowledge. The results help resolve some current debates about the role of conscious awareness in sequence learning.
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2015
Whether, and how, explicit knowledge about some regularity arises from implicit sensorimotor learning 30 by practice has been a matter of long-standing debate. Previously, we had found in the number reduction 31 task that participants who will acquire explicit knowledge differ from other participants in their 32 event-related potentials (ERPs) already at task onset. In the present study, we investigated such ERP pre-33 cursors and correlates both of explicit and of sensorimotor knowledge (response speeding) about the reg-34 ular sequence in a large sample of participants (n % 100) in the serial response time task. Already when 35 perceiving random sequences at task onset, those participants had largest P3 amplitudes who would later 36 gain explicit knowledge but whose responses were not speeded. Later in the task, sensorimotor knowl-37 edge was reflected in increased fronto-central negativity in irregular blocks, overlapping the early part 38 of P3, and participants with later explicit knowledge generally had increased P3 amplitudes. These results 39 support the notion that explicit knowledge about covert regularities is acquired in two ways: on the one 40 hand by a particular subgroup of participants possibly independently of sequence-specific response 41 speeding, and on the other hand by transforming such sensorimotor to explicit knowledge through 42 practice.
Explicit knowledge and intention to learn in sequence learning: an event-related potential study
NeuroReport, 2005
The present study was performed to examine how intention to learn and explicit knowledge in sequence learning are re£ected in event-related potentials. Participants responded to numerals presented in a repeating order, which were replaced infrequently by deviant numerals. The participants were given incidental or intentional learning instructions. Sequence parts for which they acquired explicit knowledge were identi¢ed for each participant by post-task memory tests. Reaction times indicated that sequence learning occurred under both types of instruction. The N2 enhancement for deviants was primarily associated with explicit sequence knowledge, and the P3 enhancement showed a weak association. These results suggested that N2 and P3 re£ect di¡erent aspects of explicit learning. NeuroReport 16:705^708 c 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Can unconscious knowledge allow control in sequence learning?
Consciousness and Cognition, 2010
This paper investigates the conscious status of both the knowledge that an item is legal (judgment knowledge) and the knowledge of why it is legal (structural knowledge) in sequence learning. We compared ability to control use of knowledge (Process Dissociation Procedure) with stated awareness of the knowledge (subjective measures) as measures of the conscious status of knowledge. Experiment 1 showed that when people could control use of judgment knowledge they were indeed conscious of having that knowledge according to their own statements. Yet Experiment 2 showed that people could exert such control over the use of judgment knowledge when claiming they had no structural knowledge: i.e. conscious judgment knowledge could be based on unconscious structural knowledge. Further implicit learning research should be clear over whether judgment or structural knowledge is claimed to be unconscious as the two dissociate in sequence learning.
Implicit probabilistic sequence learning is independent of explicit awareness
Learning & Memory, 2007
Studies into interactions between explicit and implicit motor sequence learning have yielded mixed results. Some of these discrepancies have been attributed to difficulties in isolating implicit learning. In the present study, the effect of explicit knowledge on implicit learning was investigated using a modified version of the Alternating Serial Response Time (ASRT) task, a probabilistic sequence learning paradigm that yields continuous and relatively pure measures of implicit learning. Results revealed that implicit learning occurred to the same extent, whether or not subjects had explicit knowledge. Some evidence, however, indicated that explicit knowledge could interfere with the expression of implicit learning early in training. In addition, there were dissociations between learning measures, in that reaction time and accuracy were differentially affected by explicit knowledge. These findings indicate that implicit sequence learning occurs independently of explicit knowledge, a...
Comparing direcdfgdgt and indirect measures of sequence learning
Journal of Experimental …, 1996
Comparing the sensitivity of similar direct and indirect measures is proposed as the best way to provide evidence for unconscious learning. The authors apply this approach, first proposed by E. M. , to a choice reaction-time task in which the material is generated probabilistically on the basis of a finite-state grammar . The data show that participants can learn about the structure of the stimulus material over training with the choice reaction-time task, but only to a limited extent-a result that is well predicted by the simple recurrent network model of A. Cleeremans and J. L. . Participants can also use some of this knowledge to perform a subsequent generation task. However, detailed partial correlational analyses that control for knowledge as assessed by the generation task show that large effects of sequence learning are exclusively expressed through reaction time. This result suggests that at least some of this learning cannot be characterized as conscious.