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Do Humans Use Push-Down Stacks When Learning or Producing Center-Embedded Sequences?
Stephen Ferrigno1,2, Samuel J Cheyette3, Susan Carey2
1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Cognitive Science
|September 15, 2025
Summary
Adults can learn complex grammars, but surprisingly, both center-embedded and cross-serial sequences are processed using a queue memory, not a stack. This challenges assumptions about cognitive sequence processing.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Linguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Complex sequences are fundamental to human cognition across language, music, and logic.
- The underlying cognitive mechanisms for learning and processing abstract grammars remain largely unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how adults learn and represent center-embedded and cross-serial artificial grammars.
- To test the memory architectures (stacks vs. queues) involved in processing these complex sequences.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an artificial grammar learning task with untrained generalization tests.
- Analyzed error patterns, response times, and employed a Bayesian mixture model.
- Compared sequence generation using stack and queue memory models.
Main Results:
- Adults successfully learned both center-embedded and cross-serial grammars.
- Cross-serial grammars were learned and produced more easily than center-embedded ones.
- Contrary to expectations, no evidence supported a stack architecture for center-embedded sequences; a queue architecture was indicated for both.
Conclusions:
- The findings challenge the assumption that stack architectures are necessary for center-embedded sequence processing.
- Both center-embedded and cross-serial sequences appear to be generated using a queue (first-in-first-out) memory architecture.
- Cognitive sequence processing may rely on a more unified memory mechanism than previously thought.
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