Learning to exploit a hidden predictor in skill acquisition: Tight linkage to conscious awareness

It is often assumed that implicit learning of skills based on predictive relationships proceeds independently of awareness. To test this idea, four groups of subjects played a game in which a fast-moving “demon” made a brief appearance at the bottom of the computer screen, then disappeared behind a V-shaped occluder, and finally re-appeared briefly on either the upper-left or upper-right quadrant of the screen. Points were scored by clicking on the demon during the final reappearance phase. Demons differed in several visible characteristics including color, horn height and eye size. For some subjects, horn height perfectly predicted which side the demon would reappear on. For subjects not told the rule, the subset who demonstrated at the end of the experiment that they had spontaneously discovered the rule showed strong evidence of exploiting it by anticipating the demon's arrival and laying in wait for it. Those who could not verbalize the rule performed no better than a control group for whom the demons moved unpredictably. The implications of this tight linkage between conscious awareness and implicit skill learning are discussed.