This study investigated how emotional traits and states, specifically alexithymia, positive and negative affect, influence the acquisition of implicit and explicit knowledge during a sequence learning task. Drawing on the Unexpected Event Hypothesis and Affective Signaling Hypothesis, we hypothesized that individuals with higher levels of alexithymia would show reduced emotional sensitivity to fluency disruptions, and that positive and negative affect would differentially predict implicit and explicit learning performance.

Participants (N = 39) completed a Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) to assess implicit learning and a Post-Decision Wagering Task (PDW) to evaluate explicit awareness. Emotional characteristics were measured using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP). While participants demonstrated clear signs of implicit learning, the hypotheses were not statistically supported: alexithymia was not significantly related to affective sensitivity, and neither positive nor negative affect predicted learning outcomes. An exploratory analysis also examined whether affective sensitivity might play a role in bridging implicit and explicit knowledge, but no clear evidence emerged in support of this link.

These findings suggest that the emotional mechanisms linking learning and awareness may be more complex than expected, possibly requiring stronger emotional cues or alternative measurement approaches. This study contributes to our understanding of how individual differences in emotional processing interact with cognitive learning processes, and offers directions for future research on emotion-cognition links in learning contexts.