Subjective measures of awareness and implicit cognition

Mem Cognit. 2003 Oct;31(7):1060-71. doi: 10.3758/bf03196127.

Abstract

In this article, we examine whether artificial grammar learning is implicit according to a subjective criterion of awareness based on confidence ratings. In four experiments, participants discriminated between grammatical and ungrammatical sequences in both the same (Experiment 1) and a novel (Experiments 2-4) vocabulary and indicated their confidence in each decision. Replicating earlier studies, confidence judgments reported on a continuous scale (50%-100%) were only weakly related to accuracy, suggesting that learning was implicit. In contrast, confidence judgments reported on a binary scale (high vs. low) revealed that confidence was related to accuracy. We show that participants are better able to place their phenomenal states on a binary scale, as compared with a continuous scale.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Awareness*
  • Discrimination Learning
  • Humans
  • Judgment
  • Memory, Short-Term
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Problem Solving*
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Reading
  • Semantics*
  • Serial Learning*
  • Set, Psychology
  • Subliminal Stimulation
  • Vocabulary*