Implicit Learning

Implicit learning is the learning of complex information in an unintentional manner, without awareness of what has been learned. According to Frensch and Runger's 2003 review, the general definition of implicit learning remains subject to some controversy despite significant developments in the field since the 1960s; it may require a minimal amount of attention and may depend on attentional and working-memory mechanisms, and it produces implicit knowledge in the form of abstract rather than verbatim representations, a result scholars have compared to implicit memory. Everyday examples such as learning to ride a bicycle or to swim are cited as demonstrations of implicit learning, which is held to differ from explicit learning in the absence of consciously accessible knowledge; research on amnesia, for instance, often finds intact implicit learning alongside impaired explicit learning, and brain areas tied to working memory and attention tend to be more active during explicit than implicit learning.