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Tuning in to non-adjacencies: Exposure to learnable patterns supports discovering otherwise difficult structures
Martin Zettersten1, Christine E Potter2, Jenny R Saffran1
1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Cognition
|July 6, 2020
Summary
Learning difficult non-adjacent dependencies in language is possible. Prior experience with easier structures primes the brain to detect new, complex linguistic patterns, aiding acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Language Acquisition
Background:
- Non-adjacent dependencies are common in human language but challenging to learn in laboratory settings.
- Existing research indicates that structural support, like high variability, aids learning of these dependencies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how typically difficult non-adjacent dependencies are learned.
- To test the hypothesis that prior learning of simpler dependencies facilitates the acquisition of more complex ones.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted using artificial language learning paradigms.
- Participants were exposed to learnable non-adjacent dependencies before encountering novel, difficult ones.
Main Results:
- Prior exposure to learnable non-adjacent dependencies significantly improved the learning of novel, typically undetected non-adjacent regularities.
- This suggests a scaffolding effect where initial learning supports subsequent complex structure discovery.
Conclusions:
- The discovery of complex linguistic structures can be cumulative, building upon learning experiences in supportive contexts.
- This highlights a mechanism for acquiring challenging grammatical patterns that are not immediately obvious.
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