Abstract
Trying to learn sometimes impairs implicit learning of artificial grammars and of control systems. We asked whether such negative effects of trying also occur in implicit learning of subtle sequential regularities and whether such effects vary with adult age. Young (n=12, age=20–23) and older (n=24, age=60–80) adults completed an alternating serial response time task in which predictable pattern events alternated with random ones in a visual/spatial display. Half of the participants were informed about the pattern and were instructed to try to discover it (intentional instructions), and half were not (incidental instructions). Age-related deficits in implicit learning occurred for both conditions. In addition, for the older group, but not for the younger one, intentional instructions impaired implicit pattern learning. This negative effect of trying to learn demonstrates another similarity among implicit learning tasks, supporting the view that some common processes underlie different forms of implicit learning.
Article PDF
References
Berry, D. C., &Broadbent, D. E. (1988). Interactive tasks and the implicit-explicit distinction.British Journal of Psychology,79, 251–272.
Buchner, A., Steffens, M. C., Erdfelder, E., &Rothkegel, R. (1997). A multinomial model to assess fluency and recollection in a sequence learning task.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,50A, 631–663.
Cleeremans, A., &Jimenez, L. (1998). Implicit sequence learning: The truth is in the details. In M. A. Stadler & P. A. Frensch (Eds.),Handbook of implicit learning (pp. 323–364). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Curran, T. (1997). Effects of aging on implicit sequence learning: Accounting for sequence structure and explicit knowledge.Psychological Research,60, 24–41.
Curran, T., &Keele, S. W. (1993). Attentional and nonattentional forms of sequence learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,19, 189–202.
Frensch, P. A., Lin, J., &Buchner, A. (1998). Learning versus behavioral expression of the learned: The effects of a secondary tonecounting task on implicit learning in the serial reaction task.Psychological Research,61, 83–98.
Frensch, P. A., &Miner, C. S. (1994). Effects of presentation rate and individual differences in short-term memory capacity on an indirect measure of serial learning.Memory & Cognition,22, 95–110.
Howard, J. H., Jr., &Howard, D. V. (1997). Age differences in implicit learning of higher-order dependencies in serial patterns.Psychology & Aging,12, 634–656.
Jimenez, L., Mendez, C., &Cleeremans, A. (1996). Comparing direct and indirect measures of sequence learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,22, 948–969.
Lindenberger, U., Marsiske, M., &Baltes, P. B. (2000). Memorizing while walking: Increase in dual-task costs from young adulthood to old age.Psychology & Aging,15, 417–436.
Nissen, M. J., &Bullemer, P. (1987). Attentional requirements of learning: Evidence from performance measures.Cognitive Psychology,19, 1–32.
Prull, M. W., Gabrieli, J. D. E., &Bunge, S. A. (2000). Age-related changes in memory: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.),The handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 91–154). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Reber, A. S. (1976). Implicit learning of synthetic languages: The role of instructional set.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,2, 88–94.
Reber, A. S. (1993).Implicit learning and tacit knowledge: An essay on the cognitive unconscious. New York: Oxford University Press.
Reber, A. S., Kasin, S. M., Lewis, S., &Cantor, G. (1980). On the relationship between implicit and explicit modes in the learning of a complex rule structure.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,6, 492–502.
Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition.Psychological Review,103, 403–428.
Zacks, R. T., Hasher, L., &Li, K. Z. H. (2000). Human memory. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.),The handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 293–358). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Some of the data from the incidental condition were reported in Howard and Howard (1997), and a preliminary report of some of the present findings was included in a poster presentation at the American Psychological Society meetings in Washington, D.C., May 1997. This research was supported by Grants R37 AG02751 and R37 AG15450 from the National Institute on Aging. We thank Kim Gallagher, Sarah Oldham, and Amy Pettit for their assistance in data collection.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Howard, D.V., Howard, J.H. When it does hurt to try: Adult age differences in the effects of instructions on implicit pattern learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 8, 798–805 (2001). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196220
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196220