The aim of our study was to examine the longitudinal associations between two forms of second language (L2) knowledge (i.e., explicit and implicit knowledge) and the activity types that facilitate different processing mechanisms (i.e., form- and meaning-focused processing). L2 English speakers completed two tests of explicit knowledge (untimed written grammaticality judgment test and metalinguistic knowledge test) and three tests of implicit knowledge (timed written grammaticality judgment test, oral production, and elicited imitation) at the beginning and the end of a semester of university-level study. To track engagement in the activity types, participants completed self-reported language exposure logs across five days throughout the semester. The results from an autoregressive cross-lag analysis suggest L2 explicit and implicit knowledge influenced each other reciprocally over time. Neither activity type predicted knowledge development. We conclude that language acquisition is a developmental process typified by a dynamic, synergistic interface between explicit and implicit knowledge.

This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated the relationship between phonological short-term memory (PSTM), working memory capacity (WMC), and the level of mastery of L2 grammar. Grammatical mastery was operationalized as the ability to produce and comprehend English passive voice with reference to explicit and implicit (or highly automatized) knowledge. Correlational analysis showed that PSTM was related to implicit productive knowledge while WMC was linked to explicit productive knowledge. However, regression analysis showed that those relationships were weak and mediated by overall mastery of target language grammar, operationalized as final grades in a grammar course.

The aim of the current study was to compare both incidental and explicit auditory learning of second language derivational morphology by measuring the accuracy and the reaction time of a grammaticality judgment task. Furthermore, the study was set up to examine the nature of acquired knowledge using subjective measures of awareness during the testing phases and postexperimental verbal reports. The delayed effects of learning were investigated by testing participants immediately after the learning and 1 week later also. The results showed a significant learning effect for the incidental and explicit learners immediately after exposure, but only the explicit learners maintained the learning effects a week later. Both types of learners showed no significant difference in the reaction time. Incidental learners primarily developed implicit knowledge, while explicit learners relied on explicit knowledge to a large extent, part of which became unconscious later. The differences of learning under incidental and explicit learning conditions are discussed in terms of the maintenance of knowledge.

System design at the early stage of design plays an important role in design process. Model based systems engineering is seen as a prominent approach for this challenge. System design can be explored by means of system simulation. However, as the system is a complex system, system model tends to have high level of abstraction. Therefore, the models cannot depict every details of the system, which makes optimization unreasonable.

Furthermore, at the early stage of design, there are many uncertainties such as success of technological developments. By properly incorporating uncertain factors in system design, the system can be tolerant. Currently system design is conducted by experienced experts. However, for more complex system, it would be difficult to continue the current practice. Therefore, a method to support design team to make decision in system design is needed.

This paper proposes a computational support for the system design. Design constraints, which seems the core information that design team wants at system design, are modeled. By visualizing constraints quantitatively and intuitively, the proposed method can support design team to conduct system design and design study.

Despite the growing interest in the phenomenon of learning without intention, the incidental learning of phonological features, especially prosodic features, has received relatively little attention. This paper reports an experiment on incidental learning of lexical stress rules, and investigates whether the resultant knowledge can be unconscious, abstract, and rule based. Participants were incidentally exposed to a lexical stress system where stress location of a word is mainly determined by the final phoneme, syllable type, and syllable weight. Learning was assessed by a pronunciation judgment task. Results indicate that participants were able to transfer their knowledge of stress patterns to novel words whose final phoneme was not previously encountered, suggesting that participants had acquired abstract and potentially rule-based knowledge. The combined use of subjective and objective measures of awareness in the present study provides a strong piece of evidence of the acquisition of implicit knowledge.

We put forward the concept of the radiotherapy physics team as a community of practice (COP). Radiotherapy physicists are required to continuously develop their scientific, computational and management competencies. Much of this knowledge is gained through peer-to-peer interaction in a structured environment, enabling the individual to increase their tacit knowledge. Such interaction among peers will allow issues to be framed within their context, information to be shared, decisions to be made and protocols to be developed. The structure that allows physicists to create, share and manage knowledge conforms to the accepted definition of a COP. By implementing the methods of literature review and peer group survey, we have investigated the applicability of the concept of a radiotherapy physics COP. The results of the survey have shown a generally positive medical physicist training outlook in the UK and Germany, but highlighted certain areas where improvement is needed. Our surveys have shown that while most trainees are adequately supported, there are two areas where improvements can easily be made. Spatial factors, such as departmental geography, may not always be conducive to knowledge sharing but can readily be altered in most cases. The paucity of departmental seminars and journal club meetings has been highlighted as a problem at some training centres.

This paper describes how new insight into community nursing know-how or professional artistry was produced through qualitative analysis of 30 transcripts of audio-recorded simulation data. The data were generated by simulated patient assessments of two cases. These simulated assessments were undertaken by a heterogeneous sample of district nurses drawn from a large conurbation in central Scotland in 1995. The existence of multiple sets of rich, dynamic and interactive data about each case provided a sound basis for exploring important and poorly understood aspects of nursing knowledge which are generally regarded as implicit. These aspects of nursing knowledge are particularly challenging for empirical research. The findings described are believed to be of particular interest in their articulation of collaborative approaches to patient assessment. Illustrations from the data are provided, and it is argued that the validity of the findings is enhanced by the unusual nature of the database, as well as the analytical procedures described. The limitations and significance of the findings are also addressed. The empirical analysis is linked to a preliminary discussion of procedural knowledge in nursing practice. The findings are discussed with reference to certain aspects of Foucault's view of power.

The implicit-explicit distinction is applied to knowledge representations. Knowledge is taken to be an attitude towards a proposition which is true. The proposition itself predicates a property to some entity. A number of ways in which knowledge can be implicit or explicit emerge. If a higher aspect is known explicitly then each lower one must also be known explicitly. This partial hierarchy reduces the number of ways in which knowledge can be explicit. In the most important type of implicit knowledge, representations merely reflect the property of objects or events without predicating them of any particular entity. The clearest cases of explicit knowledge of a fact are representations of one's own attitude of knowing that fact. These distinctions are discussed in their relationship to similar distinctions such as procedural-declarative, conscious-unconscious, verbalizable-nonverbalizable, direct-indirect tests, and automatic-voluntary control. This is followed by an outline of how these distinctions can be used to integrate and relate the often divergent uses of the implicit-explicit distinction in different research areas. We illustrate this for visual perception, memory, cognitive development, and artificial grammar learning.