Intentional control and implicit sequence learning

Sequence knowledge acquired by repeated exposure to targets in a speeded localization task was studied in 3 experiments that sought to test A. Destrebecqz and A. Cleeremans's (2001, 2003) claim that, under certain circumstances, the expression of such sequence knowledge cannot be brought under intentional control. In Experiment 1 participants were trained on either a deterministic or a probabilistic sequence and then performed a free-generation test under either inclusion or exclusion instructions. Participants were found to be capable of both expressing (inclusion) and avoiding expressing (exclusion) sequence knowledge. These results were confirmed in Experiment 2 with a more exact replication of Destrebecqz and Cleeremans's methodology. In Experiment 3 participants performed a trial-by-trial generation test under both inclusion and exclusion conditions after a much longer period of training. All the findings are consistent with the proposal that information acquired during sequence learning is explicit in nature.