On the Implicit Learning of Novel Associations by Amnesic Patients and Normal Subjects

This study examined whether amnesic patients and normal subjects can acquire novel associations implicitly and whether such learning can occur rapidly in a single trial. In two experiments, subjects studied novel word pairs either once or multiple times and were then asked to read old, new, and recombined word pairs as quickly as possible. In this paradigm, the learning of novel associations would be indicated by slower reading times for recombined word pairs than for old word pairs. In a third experiment, a perceptual identification paradigm was used to assess implicit learning of new associations. One-trial learning of new associations was not observed in the first two experiments, but learning of new associations did occur after multiple learning trials. An advantage of old versus recombined word pairs was obtained after a single trial only in Experiment 3 (using perceptual identification) when the results were combined across subject groups.