title: Nonconscious learning from crowded sequences.
abstract: Can people learn complex information without conscious awareness? Implicit learning-learning without awareness of what has been learned-has been the focus of intense investigation over the last 50 years. However, it remains controversial whether complex knowledge can be learned implicitly. In the research reported here, we addressed this challenge by asking participants to differentiate between sequences of symbols they could not perceive consciously. Using an operant-conditioning task, we showed that participants learned to associate distinct sequences of crowded (nondiscriminable) symbols with their respective monetary outcomes (reward or punishment). Overall, our study demonstrates that sensitivity to sequential regularities can arise through the nonconscious temporal integration of perceptual information.
authors.affiliation: 1Consciousness, Cognition, and Computation Group, Centre de Recherche Cognition et Neurosciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Atas
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Faivre
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Timmermans
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cleeremans
authors.forename: Sid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kouider
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: decision making; learning; punishment; rewards; subliminal perception