Structure transfer and consolidation in visual implicit learning

Transfer learning, the re-application of previously learned higher-level regularities to novel input, is a key challenge in cognition. While previous empirical studies investigated human transfer learning in supervised or reinforcement learning for explicit knowledge, it is unknown whether such transfer occurs during naturally more common implicit and unsupervised learning and, if so, how it is related to memory consolidation. We compared the transfer of newly acquired explicit and implicit abstract knowledge during unsupervised learning by extending a visual statistical learning paradigm to a transfer learning context. We found transfer during unsupervised learning but with important differences depending on the explicitness/implicitness of the acquired knowledge. Observers acquiring explicit knowledge during initial learning could transfer the learned structures immediately. In contrast, observers with the same amount but implicit knowledge showed the opposite effect, a structural interference during transfer. However, with sleep between the learning phases, implicit observers, while still remaining implicit, switched their behaviour and showed the same pattern of transfer as explicit observers did. This effect was specific to sleep and not found after non-sleep consolidation. Our results highlight similarities and differences between explicit and implicit learning while acquiring generalizable higher-level knowledge and relying on consolidation for restructuring internal representations.