Overview

"In this new volume in the Oxford Psychology Series, the author presents a highly readable account of the cognitive unconscious, focusing in particular on the problem of implicit learning. Implicit learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge that takes place independently of the conscious attempts to learn and largely in the absence of explicit knowledge about what was acquired. One of the core assumptions of this argument is that implicit learning is a fundamental, ""root"" process, one that lies at the very heart of the adaptive behavioral repertoire of every complex organism. The author's goals are to outline the essential features of implicit learning that have emerged from the many studies that have been carried out in a variety of experimental laboratories over the past several decades; to present the various alternative perspectives on this issue that have been proposed by other researchers and to try to accommodate these views with his own; to structure the literature so that it can be seen in the context of standard heuristics of evolutionary biology; to present the material within a functionalist approach and to try to show why the experimental data should be seen as entailing particular epistemological perspectives; and to present implicit processing as encompassing a general and ubiquitous set of operations that have wide currency and several possible applications. Chapter 1 begins with the core problem under consideration in this book, a characterization of ""implicit learning"" as it has come to be used in the literature. Reber puts this seemingly specialized topic into a general framework and suggests a theoretical model based on standard heuristics of evolutionary biology. In his account, Reber weaves a capsule history of interest in and work on the cognitive unconscious. Chapter 2 turns to a detailed overview of the experimental work on the acquisition of implicit knowledge, which currently is of great interest. Chapter 3 develops the evolutionary model within which one can see learning and cognition as richly intertwining issues and not as two distinct fields with one dominating the other. Finally, Chapter 4 explores a variety of entailments and speculations concerning implicit cognitive processes and their general role in the larger scope of human performance."

Full Product Details

Author:   Arthur S. Reber (Professor, Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Professor, Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Volume:   19
Dimensions:   Width: 23.40cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 15.70cm
Weight:   0.290kg
ISBN:  

9780195106589

ISBN 10:   019510658
Pages:   200
Publication Date:   26 September 1996
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

1: Introductory Remarks 1.1: On Learning 1.2: On Evolution 1.3: On Measuring the Contents of Consciousness 1.4: On Intelligence and Instruction 1.5: A Note on Terminology 1.6: A Rapid Historical Overview 1.7: Summary 1.8: A Personal Aside 2: Implicit Cognition: The Data Base 2.1: The Polarity Fallacy 2.2: On the Primacy of the Implicit 2.3: On Functionalism 2.4: Some Assumptions 2.5: Experimental Procedures 2.6: Empirical Studies of Implicit Learning 2.7: Methodological Issues in Implicit and Explicit Learning 3: Evolutionary Considerations: The Primacy of the Implicit 3.1: Some Introductory Remarks 3.2: The Evolutionist's Line 3.3: An Evolutionary Context for the Cognitive Unconscious 3.4: Hypothesized Characteristics of Implicit Systems 4: Implicit Issues: Some Extensions and Some Speculations 4.1: Implicit Learning and/or Implicit Memory 4.2: On Rules 4.3: Knowledge Representation 4.4: On Consciousness 4.5: Prediction and Generation of Events 4.6: Nativism and Empiricism 4.7: Afterwords 4.8: In Summary

Reviews

Insightful. [Reber's] work, which ranges from historical background, through data review, to far-reaching extensions and speculations, will be of greatest interest to graduate students and researchers of cognitive psychology, but the crisp, clear writing will be accessible to advanced undergraduates. --Choice In arguing forcefully for the concept of implicit learning, and in backing his arguments with provocative, well-designed research, Reber has made important contributions to the study of the cognitive unconscious. . . . he has forged new connections between human and animal cognition. This is a valuable book, that should be read by everyone with an interest in the nature of unconscious mental life. --John F. Kihlstrom (Univ of Arizona), Science Arthur S. Reber is perhaps the most prolific scientific contributor today to the large and burgeoning literature on implicit learning, starting with studies of miniature grammar. --American Scientist In aspiring to resituate the question of learning as a problem of acquisition rather than representation, [Reber] clearly strikes at the central premise of cognitive approaches to learning and teaching and allows us to bring those premises up for inspection. This has got to be both a crucial and fascinating concern for many adult educators who have been so enamored for the past several decades with such issues as learning how to learn, metacognition, and lifelong learning....Those of us interested in the construction of knowledge and the power of research traditions can glean a lot from this insider's view of thirty years of empirical work....The questions the work deals with should be important to us as adult educators if we are truly concerned about how adults learn and how to structure our attempts at instruction. --Adult Education Quarterly Insightful. [Reber's] work, which ranges from historical background, through data review, to far-reaching extensions and speculations, will be of greatest interest to graduate students and researchers of cognitive psychology, but the crisp, clear writing will be accessible to advanced undergraduates. --Choice In arguing forcefully for the concept of implicit learning, and in backing his arguments with provocative, well-designed research, Reber has made important contributions to the study of the cognitive unconscious. . . . he has forged new connections between human and animal cognition. This is a valuable book, that should be read by everyone with an interest in the nature of unconscious mental life. --John F. Kihlstrom (University of Arizona), Science Arthur S. Reber is perhaps the most prolific scientific contributor today to the large and burgeoning literature on implicit learning, starting with studies of miniature grammar. --American Scientist In aspiring to resituate the question of learning as a problem of acquisition rather than representation, [Reber] clearly strikes at the central premise of cognitive approaches to learning and teaching and allows us to bring those premises up for inspection. This has got to be both a crucial and fascinating concern for many adult educators who have been so enamored for the past several decades with such issues as learning how to learn, metacognition, and lifelong learning....Those of us interested in the construction of knowledge and the power of research traditions can glean a lot from this insider's view of thirty years of empirical work....The questions the work deals with should be important to us as adult educators if we are truly concerned about how adults learn and how to structure our attempts at instruction. --Adult Education Quarterly

From reviews of the hardback: ...every psychologist will enjoy reading this book. De Psycholoog

Insightful. [Reber's] work, which ranges from historical background, through data review, to far-reaching extensions and speculations, will be of greatest interest to graduate students and researchers of cognitive psychology, but the crisp, clear writing will be accessible to advanced undergraduates. --Choice In arguing forcefully for the concept of implicit learning, and in backing his arguments with provocative, well-designed research, Reber has made important contributions to the study of the cognitive unconscious. . . . he has forged new connections between human and animal cognition. This is a valuable book, that should be read by everyone with an interest in the nature of unconscious mental life. --John F. Kihlstrom (Univ of Arizona), Science Arthur S. Reber is perhaps the most prolific scientific contributor today to the large and burgeoning literature on implicit learning, starting with studies of miniature grammar. --American Scientist In aspiring to resituate the question of learning as a problem of acquisition rather than representation, [Reber] clearly strikes at the central premise of cognitive approaches to learning and teaching and allows us to bring those premises up for inspection. This has got to be both a crucial and fascinating concern for many adult educators who have been so enamored for the past several decades with such issues as learning how to learn, metacognition, and lifelong learning....Those of us interested in the construction of knowledge and the power of research traditions can glean a lot from this insider's view of thirty years of empirical work....The questions the work deals with should be important to us as adult educators if we are truly concerned about how adults learn and how to structure our attempts at instruction. --Adult Education Quarterly Insightful. [Reber's] work, which ranges from historical background, through data review, to far-reaching extensions and speculations, will be of greatest interest to graduate students and researchers of cognitive psychology, but the crisp, clear writing will be accessible to advanced undergraduates. --Choice In arguing forcefully for the concept of implicit learning, and in backing his arguments with provocative, well-designed research, Reber has made important contributions to the study of the cognitive unconscious. . . . he has forged new connections between human and animal cognition. This is a valuable book, that should be read by everyone with an interest in the nature of unconscious mental life. --John F. Kihlstrom (University of Arizona), Science Arthur S. Reber is perhaps the most prolific scientific contributor today to the large and burgeoning literature on implicit learning, starting with studies of miniature grammar. --American Scientist In aspiring to resituate the question of learning as a problem of acquisition rather than representation, [Reber] clearly strikes at the central premise of cognitive approaches to learning and teaching and allows us to bring those premises up for inspection. This has got to be both a crucial and fascinating concern for many adult educators who have been so enamored for the past several decades with such issues as learning how to learn, metacognition, and lifelong learning....Those of us interested in the construction of knowledge and the power of research traditions can glean a lot from this insider's view of thirty years of empirical work....The questions the work deals with should be important to us as adult educators if we are truly concerned about how adults learn and how to structure our attempts at instruction. --Adult Education Quarterly

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