Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Born in London, United Kingdom, Peter Robinson is probably best known for his empirical studies, beginning in the mid‐1990s, into the roles of attention and awareness during implicit and explicit second language learning, and the effects of task complexity on L2 learners’ production and acquisition. Throughout his work in these areas he has consistently addressed the influence of individual differences in cognitive abilities on successful learning under implicit or explicit conditions, or on different types of task. His long list of academic interests and his contributions to the field of applied linguistics through journal articles, conference presentations, book chapters, and edited and authored books have revolved around three main hypotheses that he has put forward. These are the cognition hypothesis, the aptitude complex/ability differentiation hypothesis, and the fundamental similarity hypothesis, which will be further described below.</jats:p>