Incidental Learning in Human Performance

Abstract

The fact that subjects will learn even when they are not explicitly instructed to do so has been repeatedly demonstrated. This phenomenon has been termed incidental learning, and is defined as "learning which apparently takes place without a specific motive or a specific formal instruction and set to learn the activity or material in question." (McGeoch and Iron, 1952; p. 120). In both "intentional" and "incidental" learning, the subjects' receptors must be stimulated; he must see or hear the stimulus material. The main difference is one of set. "Incidentalness" refers to the absence of an experimentally induced set to learn. The work "apparently" has been included in the definition because experimental findings (e.g. Postmand and Senders, 1946) have indicated that incidental learning, when it does occur, is frequently the result of self-instructed sets generalized from other learning situations. For the purposes of this review therefore, incidental learning will be defined as learning which occurs in the absence of (a) experimentally administered instructions to learn, and (b) introspectively reported intention to learn.