Dienes & Perner offer us a theory of explicit and implicit
knowledge that promises to systematise a large and diverse body of
research in cognitive psychology. Their advertised strategy is to
unpack this distinction in terms of explicit and implicit
representation. But when one digs deeper one finds
the “Higher-Order Thought” theory of consciousness
doing much of the work. This reduces both the plausibility and
usefulness of their account. We think their strategy is broadly
correct, but that consensus on the explicit/implicit knowledge
distinction is still a fair way off.
