The interaction of implicit learning, explicit hypothesis testing learning and implicit-to-explicit knowledge extraction

To further explore the interaction between the implicit and explicit learning processes in skill acquisition (which have been tackled before, e.g. in [Sun, R., Merrill, E., & Peterson, T. (2001). From implicit skill to explicit knowledge: A bottom-up model of skill learning. Cognitive Science, 25(2), 203–244; Sun, R., Slusarz, P., & Terry, C. (2005). The interaction of the explicit and the implicit in skill learning: A dual-process approach. Psychological Review, 112(1), 159–192]), this paper explores details of the interaction of different learning modes: implicit learning, explicit hypothesis testing learning, and implicit-to-explicit knowledge extraction. Contrary to the common tendency in the literature to study each type of learning in isolation, this paper highlights the interaction among them and various effects of the interaction on learning, including the synergy effect. This work advocates an integrated model of skill learning that takes into account both implicit and explicit learning processes; moreover, it also uniquely embodies a bottom-up (implicit-to-explicit) learning approach in addition to other types of learning. The paper shows that this model accounts for various effects in the human behavioural data from the psychological experiments with the process control task, in addition to accounting for other data in other psychological experiments (which has been reported elsewhere). The paper shows that to account for these effects, implicit learning, bottom-up implicit-to-explicit extraction and explicit hypothesis testing learning are all needed.