Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 21, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
How semantic biases in simple adjacencies affect learning a complex structure with non-adjacencies in AGL: a
1Cognitive Psychology Department, Leiden University, Pieter de la Court building, PO Box 9555, 2300 Leiden, The Netherlands. poletiek@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Abstract:
A major theoretical debate in language acquisition research regards the learnability of hierarchical structures. The artificial grammar learning methodology is increasingly influential in approaching this question. Studies using an artificial centre-embedded A(n)B(n) grammar without semantics draw conflicting conclusions. This study investigates the facilitating effect of distributional biases in simple AB adjacencies in the input sample--caused in natural languages, among others, by semantic biases-on learning a centre-embedded structure. A mathematical simulation of the linguistic input and the learning, comparing various distributional biases in AB pairs, suggests that strong distributional biases might help us to grasp the complex A(n)B(n) hierarchical structure in a later stage. This theoretical investigation might contribute to our understanding of how distributional features of the input--including those caused by semantic variation--help learning complex structures in natural languages.
Related Concept Videos
Associative Learning
Classical conditioning, also known...
Structural Classification of Joints
A fibrous joint is where the adjacent bones are united by fibrous connective...
The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic
Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect
Constraints and Statical Determinacy
Stability of structures
