Methodological vs. strategic control in artificial grammar learning: A commentary on Norman, Price and Jones (2011)

Norman et al. (2011) reported that participants exposed in succession to two artificial grammars could be able to learn implicitly about them, and could apply their knowledge strategically to select which string corresponds to one of these two grammars. In this commentary, I identify an artifact that could account for the learning obtained not only in this study, but also in some previous studies using the same procedures. I claim that more methodological control is needed before jumping to conclusions on the kind of strategic control that could be achieved unconsciously.