Implicit Learning Out of the Lab: Language and Music

Implicit learning, essentially the ability to acquire unconscious (implicit) knowledge, is a fundamental aspect of human cognition. This symposium focuses on the acquisition of two cognitive systems that are widely regarded as prime examples of implicit learning “in the real world”, namely language and music (see e.g. Rebuschat et al., 2011; Rohrmeier & Rebuschat, 2012). This symposium brings together leading researchers from across the cognitive sciences (psychology, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, computer science, and musicology) in order to discuss current trends in implicit learning research, to identify the progress made in recent years, and to outline future directions to take, both in terms of topics and novel methodologies. The symposium will consist of five talks, followed by a brief general discussion. Each talk approaches the symposium topic from a highly innovative and interdisciplinary angle. Christiansen and Misyak focus on individual differences in implicit language learning, while Rebuschat concentrates on the role of implicit and explicit learning in second language (L2) acquisition. François and Schön’s work demonstrates the impressive effect of musical practice on the implicit learning of linguistic structure, while the last two talks, by Dienes and colleagues and by Rohrmeier and Widdess, focus on the implicit learning of Chinese tonal poetry and of syntactic features of North Indian music, respectively. These last two studies reflect a particularly important trend in implicit learning research towards the use of more ecologically-valid stimuli. In addition to introducing novel and exciting subject areas, the research discussed in this symposium also reflects the strong tendency, within cognitive science, for methodological diversification. The talks will discuss data from behavioral and neurophysiological experiments as well as results of computational modeling.