The conditions (implicit or explicit) under which exposure to L2 input takes place and the level of awareness raised while processing input may be strongly related to the learning process. This study investigates how intake was affected both by awareness and by the conditions under which a problem-solving task was performed. Spanish conditional sentences were presented to learners through five different degrees of explicitness, which were the result of combining the factors [±formal instruction] and [±directions to search for rules]. Intake was measured through a multiple-choice recognition test administered immediately after the experimental task. Level of awareness was assessed by means of think-aloud protocols collected during input processing. Results indicate that (a) the degrees of explicitness had a differential effect on intake, (b) the higher the level of awareness demonstrated, the stronger the effect on intake, and (c) the conditions under which the task was administered influenced the way information was processed.