Implicit learning
In psychology, implicit learning is the often unconscious or playful acquisition of skills and knowledge when performing an activity. For example, children learn a language or social behavior . At an advanced age, it is mainly motor skills such as cycling or procedural skills such as conducting customer meetings that are implicitly learned or trained.
In general, one can say that skills are usually learned implicitly and facts are usually learned explicitly. An exception to this rule is e.g. B. instrumental lessons in which motor skills are explicitly learned and practiced. Knowledge based on pattern comparisons is largely learned implicitly, even if it could be partially explained using explicit formulas. Recognizing faces or assessing complex situations are examples of this. In scientific research, on the one hand, attention or its lack of attention and the content of what has been learned play an important role. Probably the first mention of implicit learning was in 1967 by Arthur S. Reber.
Experimental paradigms
A variety of experimental paradigms have been developed to investigate implicit learning . According to this, unconscious learning is shown, among other things, in the control of complex systems, sequence learning and learning of hidden relationships (covariance learning) and artificial grammars .
Control of complex systems
In everyday life, people are often confronted with problems that are difficult to deal with because the underlying mechanisms are complicated and the problem solvers are not or only partially known. The handling of subjects with such difficulties has often been investigated in psychology using computer simulations . For example, in an experiment by Dietrich Dörner, the test subjects were able to try to maintain the prosperity of the population as mayor of the fictitious small town “Lohhausen”. Another well-known experiment is controlling the production volume of a sugar factory. In the latter example, the test phase was followed by a survey in which the test subjects had the opportunity to verbalize their knowledge of the production relationships. Many of them were unable to put the skills they had gained in the experiment into words.
Learning artificial grammars
In a typical study, the test subjects are given the task of learning a sequence of letters. This sequence of letters has a grammatical structure. In a subsequent test, the test subjects should then decide whether or not a certain sequence of letters can be described as grammatically correct according to this structure.
Sequencer learning task
In a sequencing task, the test subjects are asked to repeat letter sequences that correspond to a fixed sequence without their explicit knowledge by pressing different keys. The reaction times that are required for pressing the buttons serve as a measure of the degree of implicit learning. Furthermore, it can be checked whether test subjects are able to continue the series correctly after entering a few initial letters.
Covariation learning
In an experiment that is typical of this paradigm, the test subjects are presented with stimuli whose characteristics obey a rule (unknown to the test subjects). An example of this is Lewicki's experiment (Lewicki 1976), in which the test subjects were shown faces of different people who were labeled either “friendly” or “intelligent”. The rule, which was not known to the test participants, was, for example: “Friendly people have a shorter haircut than intelligent people”. The learning of this rule could then be measured by a test in which the aim was to assign the label “friendly” or “intelligent” to other people.
In 1994 Shanks & St. John requested the introduction of two important criteria to ensure scientific knowledge: an information criterion and a sensitivity criterion . The implementation of the first criterion is intended to ensure that precisely the information learned is responsible for the performance shown. The second criterion, however, requires that an attention test should be sensitive to all conscious knowledge. The attention check test should therefore be comprehensive. This could be achieved through similar tests when querying performance and perception. If there are differences in performance and perception, then there is a very high probability that learning was implicit.
Practical use
On John Dewey result is the Civic Education . Project-oriented learning uses the phenomena of group dynamics. Newer forms, such as implicit social learning, are also based on findings from neurodidactics (neurobiology).
Modern foreign language teaching uses similar synergies. Vocabulary and grammar are no longer learned by heart linearly (memorized), but learned implicitly through application in conversations and texts.
See also
- Know-how - practical knowledge
- Implicit knowledge
- Incidental learning
swell
- ^ AS Reber: Implicit learning of artificial grammars. In: Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 6, 1967, pp. 855-863.
- ^ I. Koch: Conditioning and implicit learning. In: Jochen Müsseler, Wolfgang Prinz: General Psychology. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg / Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8274-1128-9 .
- ↑ Dietrich Dörner : The logic of failure: strategic thinking in complex situations . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-499-61578-9 .
- ↑ DC Berry, DE Broadbent : On the relationship between task performance and associated verbalisable knowledge. In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 36A, 1984, pp. 209-231.
- ^ DR Shanks, St. John, MF: Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems. In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 17 (3), 1994, pp. 367-447.