Response-effects trigger the development of explicit knowledge

In implicit learning, task-redundant response-effects can enhance the development of explicit knowledge. Here, we investigated whether learning a fixed sequence of effects (stimuli occurring immediately after the participant's keypress, but are not mapped to the identity of the respective response) influence the development of explicit rather than implicit knowledge when these effects are afterwards mapped to the identity of the responses. We tested first, whether participants would learn a fixed sequence of effects in a serial reaction time task when these effects were not mapped to the identity of the responses. Next, we tested whether learning this effect sequence in advance would facilitate the development of explicit knowledge about a contingently mapped sequence of responses. The results showed that participants acquired implicit knowledge when confronted with only the effect sequence. Moreover, the further findings suggest that learning the effect sequence in advance led to the development of primarily explicit knowledge about a subsequently added response-location sequence. We interpret these results in light of the Unexpected-Event hypothesis: A sudden feeling of sense of agency is unexpected and triggers inference processes. PsycINFO classification codes: 2340, 2343.