Implicit vs. Explicit Learning

Question for the week: What is the difference between implicit vs. explicit learning?

Implicit learning involves a process where people acquire knowledge of new information through exposure (a passive process)

Explicit learning involves a process where people seek out information, find it, and receive instruction (either actively or passively)

Implicit learning is acquisition of knowledge about the underlying structure of a complex stimulus environment by a process which takes place naturally, simply and without conscious operations. Explicit learning is a more conscious operation where the individual makes and tests hypotheses in a search for structure. Knowledge attainment can thus take place implicitly (a nonconscious and automatic abstraction of the structural nature of the material arrived at from experience of instances), explicitly through selective learning (Nick C. Ellis)

Don't miss the MIT paper written by Emile Bruneau titled, "Implicit vs. Explicit Learning Activity."