Implicit Learning Out Of the Lab :

2 Abstract Children's (Grades 1 to 5) implicit learning of French orthographic regularities were investigated through nonword judgment (Experiments 1 and 2) and completion (Experiments 3a and 3b) tasks. Children were increasingly sensitive to (a) the frequency of double consonants (Experiments 1, 2 and 3a), (b) the fact that vowels can never be doubled (Experiment 2) and (c) the legal position of double consonants (Experiments 2 and 3b). The later effect transferred to never doubled consonants, although with a decrement in performance. Moreover, this decrement persisted without any trend towards fading even after the massive amounts of experience provided by years of practice. This result runs against the idea that transfer to novel material is indicative of abstract rule-based knowledge, and suggests instead the action of mechanisms sensitive to the statistical properties of the material. A connectionist model is proposed as an instantiation of such mechanisms. 3 Implicit Learning Out Of the Lab: The Case of Orthographic Regularities Most definitions of implicit learning focuses on the idea that subjects' behavior becomes sensitive to the structural features of a situation in such a way that the adaptation does not result from subjects' intentional use of their explicit knowledge of these features (Perruchet & Gallego, 1997). Although the literature on implicit learning (e.g. many introductory texts claim that implicit learning is a fundamental process involved in domains as diverse as first and second language learning, category elaboration, reading and writing acquisition, acquisition of knowledge about the physical world or social skills (e.g. Reber, 1993). There is, however, a sharp contrast between these widespread conceptions and the content of actual researches. On the one hand, implicit learning people often tend to be evasive when attempting to generalize their conclusions to real-life behavioral abilities. On the other hand, experts on learning-related topics that have direct relevance out of the laboratory (such as cognitive development in general) often tend to ignore potentially important results from the implicit learning literature. This lack of reciprocity is made clear by the conspicuous paucity of studies specifically designed to explore the links between implicit learning and real life learning. One example is Perruchet and Vinter (1998a)'s exploration of the links between implicit learning and developmental theories. Another attempt to ground implicit learning research in a more naturalistic context is provided by studies on second language acquisition (Schmidt, 1994, Michas & Berry, 1994). However, despite the fact that language acquisition …