ABSTRACT
What influence, if any, has the distinction between implicit and explicit processing had on conceptions of intelligence? In this area, the distinction has been, itself, implicit. There are at least two reasons for this. The first is that it is only relatively recently that intelligence has been viewed in information-processing terms (see Hunt, 1980; Sternberg, 1983) and it is within the information-processing framework that the distinction has been important. The second reason is historical. The study of intelligence was that part of psychology that dealt with human rationality, logic, and problem solving—in other words the application of our conscious, rational faculties in the pursuit of knowledge. Consequently, the essence of intelligence usually is regarded as the possession of some kind of explicit representation. Implicit knowing (getting it right without knowing why) simply would not be regarded as intelligent knowing. I return to the distinction between intelligent and unintelligent knowing in a later section.
