Implicit Learning: Development, Individual Differences, and Educational Implications

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to link models from cognitive neuroscience with problems and models from education research as well as to advance our understanding of implicit learning. In addition to a review of the current understanding of implicit learning from psychology and neuroscience, an essay on the potential applications of implicit learning to education and two empirical studies comprise this document. The first study compares implicit learning in adults and children to address the question of developmental invariance in implicit learning. One novel aspect of this study is the use of a battery of implicit learning tasks, as well as comparison explicit learning tasks. Although gross differences were not found between adults and children in the implicit learning tasks, nevertheless first-level item analysis revealed that children and adults may differentially exploit stimulus frequency information to perform the tasks. The second study uses parallel forms of multiple implicit learning tasks to determine the reliability of implicit learning tasks for adult participants. Contrary to the prevailing view of implicit learning, stable individual differences were found. Correlations between individual implicit learning and certain non-cognitive traits (such as conscientiousness) were found, but IQ was not correlated with implicit learning. Finally, the implications of these findings for basic research as well as for the possibility of applying implicit learning to K-12 instruction are discussed.