Implicit learning: Sensitive to age but not IQ

Abstract According to Reber (1992), implicit learning should vary only minimally with age and intelligence quotient (IQ), whereas explicit learning should depend heavily on both age and IQ. To evaluate these predictions, children from two age groups (5-7 yean and 10-12 years) were selected to form low, medium, and high IQ subgroups. They were then tested on an implicit and an explicit learning task. The implicit task, adapted from Lewicki (1986), used a number of 4 × 4 matrices which displayed 16 pictures in different arrangements. One picture was of a house, and the children were required to learn the incidental covariation of (a) the experimenter's side of approach (left or right), with the house positioned in the upper or lower half of the matrix; and (b) the colour of the matrix board and cover (red or blue), with the house positioned in the left or right half of die matrix. The explicit task had a similar logical structure to the implicit task, but (a) was implemented using different stimulus dimensi...

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