A subjective unit formation account of implicit learning

Abstract

This chapter argues against conventional accounts of implicit learning. It proposes that implicit learning designates an adaptive mode in which people's behaviour is sensitive to the structural features of a previously presented situation, without this adaptation being due to the internal exploitation of knowledge about these features. The chapter puts forward a Subjective Unit Account of implicit learning, according to which people process complex material by parsing it into small and disjunctive units. It further argues that implicit learning generates conscious perceptual units, and that these are directly responsible for the improvement in performance observed in typical implicit learning studies. The chapter suggests that, with training, conscious perceptual units become increasingly independent of the sensory input and, hence, form the explicit representations tapped by conventional tests of explicit knowledge.