Although many studies have provided evidence that abstract knowledge can be acquired in artificial grammar learning, it remains unclear how abstract knowledge can be attained in sequence learning. To address this issue, we proposed a dual simple recurrent network model that includes a surface SRN encoding and predicting the surface properties of stimuli and an abstract SRN encoding and predicting the abstract properties of stimuli. The results of Simulations 1 and 2 showed that the DSRN model can account for learning (...) effects in the serial reaction time task under different conditions, and the manipulation of the contribution weight of each SRN accounted for the contribution of conscious and unconscious processes in inclusion and exclusion tests in previous studies. The results of human performance in Simulation 3 provided further evidence that people can implicitly learn both chunking and abstract knowledge in sequence learning, and the results of Simulation 3 confirmed that the DSRN model can account for how people implicitly acquire the two types of knowledge in sequence learning. These findings extend the learning ability of the SRN model and help understand how different types of knowledge can be acquired implicitly in sequence learning. (shrink)

We investigate two questions, the relevance of memory for evaluative conditioning effects based on smell-taste pairings, and the potential preparedness of smell-taste combinations for...

This article focuses on the implicit statistical learning of words and syntax. Monaghan, Schoetensack and Rebuschat introduce a novel paradigm that combines theoretical and methodological insights from the two research traditions, implicit learning and statistical learning. Their cross‐situational learning paradigm has been used in the statistical learning literature, while their measures of awareness have widely been used in implicit learning research. They illustrate how the two literatures can be conjoined in a single paradigm to explore implicit statistical learning.

Behavioral evidence for the COVIS dual‐process model of category learning has been widely reported in over a hundred publications (Ashby & Valentin, ). It is generally accepted that the validity of such evidence depends on the accurate identification of individual participants' categorization strategies, a task that usually falls to Decision Bound analysis (Maddox & Ashby, ). Here, we examine the accuracy of this analysis in a series of model‐recovery simulations. In Simulation 1, over a third of simulated participants using an (...) Explicit (conjunctive) strategy were misidentified as using a Procedural strategy. In Simulation 2, nearly all simulated participants using a Procedural strategy were misidentified as using an Explicit strategy. In Simulation 3, we re‐examined a recently reported COVIS‐supporting dissociation (Smith et al., ) and found that these misidentification errors permit an alternative, single‐process, explanation of the results. Implications for due process in the future evaluation of dual‐process theories, including recommendations for future practice, are discussed. (shrink)

If human language must be squeezed through a narrow cognitive bottleneck, what are the implications for language processing, acquisition, change, and structure? In our target article, we suggested that the implications are far-reaching and form the basis of an integrated account of many apparently unconnected aspects of language and language processing, as well as suggesting revision of many existing theoretical accounts. With some exceptions, commentators were generally supportive both of the existence of the bottleneck and its potential implications. Many commentators (...) suggested additional theoretical and linguistic nuances and extensions, links with prior work, and relevant computational and neuroscientific considerations; some argued for related but distinct viewpoints; a few, though, felt traditional perspectives were being abandoned too readily. Our response attempts to build on the many suggestions raised by the commentators and to engage constructively with challenges to our approach. (shrink)

The present work is concerned with a phenomenon referred to as contextual cueing. In visual search, if a searched-for target object is consistently encountered within a stable spatial arrangement of distractor objects, detecting the target becomes more efficient over time, relative to non-repeated, random arrangements. This effect is attributed to learned target-distractor spatial associations stored in long-term memory, which expedite visual search. This Thesis investigates four aspects of contextual cueing: Study 1 tackled the implicit-explicit debate of contextual cueing from a (...) new perspective. Previous studies tested explicit access to learned displays by applying a recognition test, asking observers whether they have seen a given display in the previous search task. These tests, however, typically yield mixed findings and there is an on-going controversy whether contextual cueing can be described as an implicit or an explicit effect. The current study applied the new perspective of metacognition to contextual cueing and combined a contextual cueing task with metacognitive ratings about the clarity of the visual experience, either of the display configuration or the target stimulus. Bayesian analysis revealed that there was an effect of repeated context on metacognitive sensitivity for configuration, but not target, ratings. It was concluded that effects of contextual memory on metacognition are content-specific and lead to increased metacognitive access to the display configuration, but not to the target stimulus. The more general implication is that from the perspective of metacognition, contextual cueing can be considered as an explicit effect. Study 2 aimed at testing how explicit knowledge affects memory-guided visual search. Two sets of search displays were shown to participants: explicit and implicit displays. Explicit displays were introduced prior to the search experiment, in a dedicated learning session, and observers should deliberately learn these displays. Implicit displays, on the other hand, were first shown in the search experiment and learning was incidental through repeated exposure to these displays. Contextual cueing arising from explicit and implicit displays was assessed relative to a baseline condition of non-repeated displays. The results showed a standard contextual cueing effect for explicit displays and, interestingly, a negative cueing effect for implicit displays. Recognition performance was above chance for both types of repeated displays; however, it was higher for explicit displays. This pattern of results confirmed – in part – the predictions of a single memory model of attention-moderated associative learning, in which different display types compete for behavior and explicit representations block the retrieval of implicit representations. Study 3 investigates interactions between long-term contextual memory with short-term perceptual hypotheses. Both types of perceptual memory share high similarities with respect to their content, therefore the hypothesis was formulated that they share a common memory resource. In three experiments of interrupted search with repeated and non-repeated displays, it was shown that contextual cueing expedites performance in interrupted search; however, there was no interaction of contextual cueing with the generation or the confirmation of perceptual hypotheses. Rather, the analysis of fixational eye movements showed that long-term memory exerts its influence on search performance upon the first glance of a given display, essentially affecting the starting point of the search process. The behavior of approaching the target stimulus is then a product of generating and confirming perceptual hypotheses with these processes being unaffected by long-term contextual memory. It was concluded that long-term and short-term memory representations of the same search display are independent and exhibit additive effects on search performance. Study 4 is concerned with the effects of reward on perceptual learning. It was argued that rewarding repeated displays in a contextual cueing paradigm leads to an acceleration of the learning effect; however, it was not considered whether reward also has an effect in non-repeated displays. In these displays, at least the target position is kept constant while distractor configurations are random across repetitions. Usually this is done in order to account for target position-specific probability learning in contextual cueing. However, it is possible that probability learning itself is modulated by reward. The current experiment introduced high or low reward to repeated and importantly, also non-repeated displays. It was shown that reward had a huge effect on non-repeated displays, indicating that rewarding certain target positions, irrespective of the distractor layout, facilitates RT performance. Interestingly, reward effects were even larger for non-repeated compared to repeated displays. It was concluded that reward has a strong effect on probability-, and not context learning. (shrink)

This paper considers methodological issues of awareness during adult second language acquisition. Specifically, the paper deals with the issue of instructional orientations, the issue of biases in knowledge measurement, and the issue of reactivity in the online think-aloud protocol. Detailed reviews of prominent SLA research that has investigated the possibility of implicit SLA reveal that the instruction on implicit learning does not guarantee that learners engage in the implicit learning mode, that the majority of SLA research has employed only tests (...) of “explicit learning” such as untimed grammaticality judgment, and that there is some evidence that the online think-aloud protocol causes negative reactivity particularly when it is metalinguistic in nature. (shrink)

Methodological problems of how awareness during learning should be measured have been extensively discussed and investigated in cognitive psychology. This review considers; 1)whether amnesics can perform implicit learning tasks at a similar level to normal controls, 2) whether differences in instructional orientations create dissociations in performance in tests of implicit and explicit knowledge, and 3) whether participants can retrospectively verbalise the learning outcomes. The paper concludes that; amnesics’ implicit learning abilities differ from the normal controls, instructions on implicit learning do (...) not guarantee the occurrence of implicit learning, and objective and subjective awareness measures used in the literature face inherent problems and so the awareness controversy remains unsettled. (shrink)

In an experiment on markets for services, we find that consumers are likely to stick to default tariffs and achieve suboptimal outcomes. We find that inattention to the task of choosing a better tariff is likely to be a substantial problem in addition to any task and tariff complexity effect. The institutional setup on which we primarily model our experiment is the UK electricity and gas markets, and our conclusion is that the new measures by the UK regulator Ofgem to (...) improve consumer outcomes are likely to be of limited impact. (shrink)

Explicitness has usually been approached from two points of view, labelled by Kirsh the structural and the process view, that hold opposite assumptions to determine when information is explicit. In this paper, we offer an intermediate view that retains intuitions from both of them. We establish three conditions for explicit information that preserve a structural requirement, and a notion of explicitness as a continuous dimension. A problem with the former accounts was their disconnection with psychological work on the issue. We (...) review studies by Karmiloff-Smith, and Shanks and St. John to show that the proposed conditions have psychological grounds. Finally, we examine the problem of explicit rules in connectionist systems in the light of our framework. (shrink)

Using the Chinese Ring Puzzle (Kotovsky & Simon, Citation1990; P. J. Reber & Kotovsky, Citation1997), we studied the effect on rule discovery of having to plan actions or not in order to reach a goal state. This was done by asking participants to predict legal moves as in implicit learning tasks (Experiment 1) and by asking participants to make legal moves as in problem-solving tasks (Experiment 2). Our hypothesis was that having a specific goal state to reach has a dual (...) effect on rule discovery. The first effect is positive and related to feedback from moves done in order to attain the goal: generalising the results of action and associating them to the conditions in which they were obtained allows discovery of the rule and learning it. The second effect is negative. In attempting to reach a specific goal, participants first tend to reduce the distance that separates the current state from the goal state (hill climbing) and so neglect the kind of exploration that facilitates rule and procedure discovery because this would seem to be a detour from the goal. Results show that having to plan actions improved performance in implicit learning tasks (Experiment 1), yet it impaired performance in problem-solving tasks (Experiment 2). Although implicit learning and problem solving are based on rule discovery, and entail noticing regularities in the material, in both cases, rule discovery processes appear to be task-dependent. (shrink)

Do dissociations imply independent systems? In the memory field, the view that there are independent implicit and explicit memory systems has been predominantly supported by dissociation evidence. Here, we argue that many of these dissociations do not necessarily imply distinct memory systems. We review recent work with a single-system computational model that extends signal-detection theory (SDT) to implicit memory. SDT has had a major influence on research in a variety of domains. The current work shows that it can be broadened (...) even further in its range of application. Indeed, the single-system model that we present does surprisingly well in accounting for some key dissociations that have been taken as evidence for independent implicit and explicit memory systems. (shrink)

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is one of the terms that is used to refer to associatively induced changes in liking. Many controversies have arisen in the literature on EC. Do associatively induced changes in liking actually exist? Does EC depend on awareness of the fact that stimuli are associated? Is EC resistant to extinction? Does attention help or hinder EC? As an introduction to this special issue, we will discuss the extent to which the papers that are published in this issue (...) help to resolve some of the controversies that surround EC. We also speculate about possible boundary conditions of EC and attempt to reconcile conflicting results on the functional properties of EC. (shrink)