ABSTRACT
In recent years, the study of human memory has been dominated by a flood of papers concerned with the proposed distinction between implicit and explicit learning and memory [16, 17, 20]. Explicit memory concerns the capacity to recollect the events experienced in one's past, what Tulving has termed episodic memory. Explicit learning is facilitated by devoting full attention to the material to be remembered, and elaborating it as richly and deeply as possible. In contrast, implicit learning is comparatively impervious to the richness of the initial encoding, while the retrieval of such material may be unaccompanied by any conscious recollection of the original learning experience. A further striking feature of implicit learning is its preservation in patients who are otherwise densely amnesic [3, 5]. This latter finding might suggest an important practical consequence of such preserved learning. Brain damaged patients typically have learning and memory deficits as one of a range of possible cognitive impairments. Since rehabilitation will normally depend upon learning new skills or re-learning old ones, any preserved learning capacity seems likely to be of considerable value. However, with the notable exception of Glisky et al. [6], who use the method of fading cues to help brain damaged patients learn computing, work on implicit learning has had little impact on rehabilitation, with even the Glisky et al. work still being apparently more quoted than copied.
