How incidental sequence learning creates reportable knowledge: The role of unexpected events.

Rünger, Dennis; Frensch, Peter A. · 2008 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition

DOI: 10.1037/a0012942

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Summary

This study investigates the cognitive mechanisms responsible for generating explicit, reportable knowledge during incidental sequence learning. While research has extensively documented implicit learning, the transition to conscious awareness remains poorly understood. The authors test the "unexpected-event hypothesis," which posits that individuals acquire reportable knowledge when they search for the cause of a deviation from expected task performance. Specifically, the hypothesis suggests that unexpected events trigger attributional processes in the explicit memory system, leading to the discovery of sequential regularities. To test this, the researchers employed a modified serial reaction time (SRT) task using a color-matching paradigm with six response locations governed by a repeating first-order conditional sequence. Participants were unaware of the underlying regularity, ensuring incidental learning. The experimental design compared a baseline condition with uninterrupted training against conditions where the sequence was disrupted by either random sequences or an alternate systematic sequence. A key methodological innovation was a novel scoring procedure for verbal reports that quantified the structural overlap between a participant’s verbalized sequence and the actual training sequence, adjusting for the probability of achieving such overlap by chance. This allowed for a precise measurement of explicit knowledge that traditional scoring methods might miss. The results supported the unexpected-event hypothesis. Disrupting the training sequence with a systematic transfer sequence significantly increased the availability of reportable sequence knowledge compared to the uninterrupted baseline. Conversely, random transfer sequences did not facilitate explicit knowledge acquisition; instead, they appeared to interfere with the search process required to identify the regularity. Further experiments confirmed that the facilitative effect of systematic disruptions could be offset by introducing a concurrent secondary task, which interfered with the cognitive search process during the transfer phase. These findings indicate that the generation of explicit knowledge is not merely a byproduct of increased implicit learning strength but relies on a specific, resource-demanding search process triggered by unexpected behavioral discrepancies. The significance of these findings lies in challenging single-system accounts of sequence learning, which argue that implicit and explicit knowledge are expressions of the same underlying representations. Instead, the results support a multiple-system view where implicit learning precedes explicit learning, but explicit knowledge requires a distinct, strategic search process triggered by unexpected events. The study demonstrates that the mere presence of a regularity is insufficient for conscious awareness; rather, participants must encounter a discrepancy that prompts them to actively search for a cause. This clarifies the conditions under which incidental learning becomes reportable, highlighting the critical role of unexpected events and cognitive resources in the formation of explicit sequence knowledge.

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