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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

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Published on: January 29, 2020

Do Humans Really Learn A(n) B(n) Artificial Grammars From Exemplars?

Jean-Rémy Hochmann¹, Mahan Azadpour, Jacques Mehler

¹Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, International School of Advanced Studies.

Cognitive Science

|May 19, 2011

Summary

Humans may not learn complex grammar rules as previously thought. This study suggests that simple pattern recognition, not abstract syntax, explains how participants processed grammatical structures in experiments.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Evolutionary Biology
Linguistics

Background:

The evolution of language hinges on understanding computational grammars in humans and animals.
Fitch and Hauser (2004) proposed humans learn A(n)B(n) (phrase structure) grammars, unlike tamarins.
This grammar involves center-embedded patterns, indicating abstract syntactic rule learning.

Purpose of the Study:

To re-evaluate the capacity for learning abstract syntactic rules in humans.
To investigate whether distributional regularities, rather than abstract grammar, explain previous findings.
To replicate and extend Fitch and Hauser's (2004) experiments with new controls.

Main Methods:

Replication of Fitch and Hauser's (2004) experimental design using auditory stimuli.
Introduction of control conditions with similar and less salient categories.
Testing participants' ability to discriminate between A(n)B(n) patterns and variations like A(3)B(2).

Main Results:

Participants failed to distinguish A(n)B(n) exemplars from those with unequal A and B constituents (e.g., A(3)B(2)).
Performance suggests reliance on surface-level distributional regularities (e.g., male/female voice patterns) over abstract grammar.
Replication confirmed previous findings, but new controls highlighted the role of simple patterns.

Conclusions:

The study concludes that participants did not learn abstract syntactic rules for center-embedded structures.
Findings challenge the interpretation of A(n)B(n) learning as evidence of innate phrase structure grammar.
The difference in linguistic abilities between humans and monkeys warrants further investigation into simpler cognitive mechanisms.