Learning, awareness, and instruction: Subjective contingency awareness does matter in the colour-word contingency learning paradigm

► Three experiments investigate the role of instructions and awareness on contingency learning. ► Instructed participants showed a larger learning effect that was mediated by subjective awareness. ► Contingency instructions with no actual contingencies did not produce an instructed contingency effect. ► False contingency instructions impaired contingency learning. ► The collective results suggest that conscious contingency knowledge moderates implicit learning.