ABSTRACT
This chapter covers forms of implicit and procedural learning. Implicit learning represents skills, knowledge and behaviors acquired without deliberate intention or awareness. Spatial learning is often categorized as stimulus-response route learning or the acquisition of cognitive maps. The actual learning can be some mixture of both; many species can flexibly adapt navigational strategies. Laboratory studies of motor skills learning used standardized tasks such as the mirror-star tracing or the pursuit rotor. Motor skills combine learning of actions with perceptual and cognitive skills. Learning is affected knowledge of results, or feedback. Implicit learning tasks include learning the sequence of apparently random numbers or spatial locations. Expertise combines declarative knowledge with procedural and implicit knowledge. Ericsson argues that expertise derives from prolonged, intense, and deliberate practice. The 10,000 hour rule has to be mentioned often here. Others make the case for some sort of inherent, native ability. The chapter concepts are applied to spatial sense of direction, real world navigation, and skilled memory theory.
