scholarly journals Unlocking adults’ implicit statistical learning by cognitive depletion

2022 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. e2026011119
Author(s):  
Eleonore H. M. Smalle ◽  
Tatsuya Daikoku ◽  
Arnaud Szmalec ◽  
Wouter Duyck ◽  
Riikka Möttönen
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Choice Test ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
Cognitive Depletion

Human learning is supported by multiple neural mechanisms that maturate at different rates and interact in mostly cooperative but also sometimes competitive ways. We tested the hypothesis that mature cognitive mechanisms constrain implicit statistical learning mechanisms that contribute to early language acquisition. Specifically, we tested the prediction that depleting cognitive control mechanisms in adults enhances their implicit, auditory word-segmentation abilities. Young adults were exposed to continuous streams of syllables that repeated into hidden novel words while watching a silent film. Afterward, learning was measured in a forced-choice test that contrasted hidden words with nonwords. The participants also had to indicate whether they explicitly recalled the word or not in order to dissociate explicit versus implicit knowledge. We additionally measured electroencephalography during exposure to measure neural entrainment to the repeating words. Engagement of the cognitive mechanisms was manipulated by using two methods. In experiment 1 (n = 36), inhibitory theta-burst stimulation (TBS) was applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or to a control region. In experiment 2 (n = 60), participants performed a dual working-memory task that induced high or low levels of cognitive fatigue. In both experiments, cognitive depletion enhanced word recognition, especially when participants reported low confidence in remembering the words (i.e., when their knowledge was implicit). TBS additionally modulated neural entrainment to the words and syllables. These findings suggest that cognitive depletion improves the acquisition of linguistic knowledge in adults by unlocking implicit statistical learning mechanisms and support the hypothesis that adult language learning is antagonized by higher cognitive mechanisms.

scholarly journals Evolution of protolinguistic abilities as a by-product of learning to forage in structured environments

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1811) ◽  
pp. 20150353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Kolodny ◽  
Shimon Edelman ◽  
Arnon Lotem
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Sequential Learning ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectory ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Foraging Environment

The skills required for the learning and use of language are the focus of extensive research, and their evolutionary origins are widely debated. Using agent-based simulations in a range of virtual environments, we demonstrate that challenges of foraging for food can select for cognitive mechanisms supporting complex, hierarchical, sequential learning, the need for which arises in language acquisition. Building on previous work, where we explored the conditions under which reinforcement learning is out-competed by seldom-reinforced continuous learning that constructs a network model of the environment, we now show that realistic features of the foraging environment can select for two critical advances: (i) chunking of meaningful sequences found in the data, leading to representations composed of units that better fit the prevalent statistical patterns in the environment; and (ii) generalization across units based on their contextual similarity. Importantly, these learning processes, which in our framework evolved for making better foraging decisions, had been earlier shown to reproduce a range of findings in language learning in humans. Thus, our results suggest a possible evolutionary trajectory that may have led from basic learning mechanisms to complex hierarchical sequential learning that can support advanced cognitive abilities of the kind needed for language acquisition.

scholarly journals Statistical Language Learning and Vagus Nerve Stimulation: A Pilot Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivette De Aguiar ◽  
Edith Kaan
Keyword(s):  
Vagus Nerve ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Phonological Memory ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Transcutaneous Stimulation ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Applying transcutaneous stimulation to the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (tVNS) has been shown to enhance associative learning in humans. The main goal of the project is to investigate the effect tVNS has on procedural learning, specifically implicit statistical language learning. The aim of the experiment reported in this paper was to determine which statistical language learning paradigms would be appropriate to use with tVNS. Since we would be looking at within-subject changes between two sessions (one session with, one session without stimulation), we tested the test-retest reliability of two statistical learning paradigms.  We also tested the correlation between a explicit phonological memory task and the implicit statistical learning tasks to determine whether phonological memory was involved in the statistical learning tasks. Our results showed a high test-retest reliability for the word segmentation and adjacent dependencies statistical learning task. However, the second statistical learning task dealing with non-adjacent dependencies had low test-retest reliability, meaning it would not be appropriate for future studies incorporating tVNS. There was a high correlation between the phonological memory task and both statistical learning taks, indicating implicit statistical learning may recruit phonological memory.

Children’s Acquisition of Syntactic Knowledge

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge ◽  
Abstract Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Of Language ◽  
Structure Knowledge

Children’s acquisition of language is an amazing feat. Children master the syntax, the sentence structure of their language, through exposure and interaction with caregivers and others but, notably, with no formal tuition. How children come to be in command of the syntax of their language has been a topic of vigorous debate since Chomsky argued against Skinner’s claim that language is ‘verbal behavior.’ Chomsky argued that knowledge of language cannot be learned through experience alone but is guided by a genetic component. This language component, known as ‘Universal Grammar,’ is composed of abstract linguistic knowledge and a computational system that is special to language. The computational mechanisms of Universal Grammar give even young children the capacity to form hierarchical syntactic representations for the sentences they hear and produce. The abstract knowledge of language guides children’s hypotheses as they interact with the language input in their environment, ensuring they progress toward the adult grammar. An alternative school of thought denies the existence of a dedicated language component, arguing that knowledge of syntax is learned entirely through interactions with speakers of the language. Such ‘usage-based’ linguistic theories assume that language learning employs the same learning mechanisms that are used by other cognitive systems. Usage-based accounts of language development view children’s earliest productions as rote-learned phrases that lack internal structure. Knowledge of linguistic structure emerges gradually and in a piecemeal fashion, with frequency playing a large role in the order of emergence for different syntactic structures.

scholarly journals THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF IMPLICIT-STATISTICAL LEARNING APTITUDE TO IMPLICIT SECOND-LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Aline Godfroid ◽  
Kathy MinHye Kim
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Language Knowledge

Abstract This study addresses the role of domain-general mechanisms in second-language learning and knowledge using an individual differences approach. We examine the predictive validity of implicit-statistical learning aptitude for implicit second-language knowledge. Participants (n = 131) completed a battery of four aptitude measures and nine grammar tests. Structural equation modeling revealed that only the alternating serial reaction time task (a measure of implicit-statistical learning aptitude) significantly predicted learners’ performance on timed, accuracy-based language tests, but not their performance on reaction-time measures. These results inform ongoing debates about the nature of implicit knowledge in SLA: they lend support to the validity of timed, accuracy-based language tests as measures of implicit knowledge. Auditory and visual statistical learning were correlated with medium strength, while the remaining implicit-statistical learning aptitude measures were not correlated, highlighting the multicomponential nature of implicit-statistical learning aptitude and the corresponding need for a multitest approach to assess its different facets.

Learning Through Processing: Toward an Integrated Approach to Early Word Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan C. Meylan ◽  
Elika Bergelson
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Novel Word Learning

Children's linguistic knowledge and the learning mechanisms by which they acquire it grow substantially in infancy and toddlerhood, yet theories of word learning largely fail to incorporate these shifts. Moreover, researchers’ often-siloed focus on either familiar word recognition or novel word learning limits the critical consideration of how these two relate. As a step toward a mechanistic theory of language acquisition, we present a framework of “learning through processing” and relate it to the prevailing methods used to assess children's early knowledge of words. Incorporating recent empirical work, we posit a specific, testable timeline of qualitative changes in the learning process in this interval. We conclude with several challenges and avenues for building a comprehensive theory of early word learning: better characterization of the input, reconciling results across approaches, and treating lexical knowledge in the nascent grammar with sufficient sophistication to ensure generalizability across languages and development. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Investigating implicit statistical learning mechanisms through contextual cueing

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 524-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annabelle Goujon ◽  
André Didierjean ◽  
Simon Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Contextual Cueing ◽  
Learning Mechanisms

scholarly journals Language statistical learning responds to reinforcement learning principles rooted in the striatum

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. e3001119
Author(s):  
Joan Orpella ◽  
Ernest Mas-Herrero ◽  
Pablo Ripollés ◽  
Josep Marco-Pallarés ◽  
Ruth de Diego-Balaguer
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Structural Rules ◽  
Learning Principles ◽  
Striatal Function

Statistical learning (SL) is the ability to extract regularities from the environment. In the domain of language, this ability is fundamental in the learning of words and structural rules. In lack of reliable online measures, statistical word and rule learning have been primarily investigated using offline (post-familiarization) tests, which gives limited insights into the dynamics of SL and its neural basis. Here, we capitalize on a novel task that tracks the online SL of simple syntactic structures combined with computational modeling to show that online SL responds to reinforcement learning principles rooted in striatal function. Specifically, we demonstrate—on 2 different cohorts—that a temporal difference model, which relies on prediction errors, accounts for participants’ online learning behavior. We then show that the trial-by-trial development of predictions through learning strongly correlates with activity in both ventral and dorsal striatum. Our results thus provide a detailed mechanistic account of language-related SL and an explanation for the oft-cited implication of the striatum in SL tasks. This work, therefore, bridges the long-standing gap between language learning and reinforcement learning phenomena.

scholarly journals The effects of endogenous and exogenus orienting of attention on source memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-89
Author(s):  
Selene Cansino
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Eye Tracker ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Symbolic Cues

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of endogenous and exogenous orienting of attention on episodic memory. Thirty healthy participants performed a cueing attention paradigm during encoding, in which images of common objects were presented either to the left or to the right of the center of the screen. Before the presentation of each image, three types of symbolic cues were displayed to indicate the location in which the stimuli would appear: valid cues to elicit endogenous orientation, invalid cues to prompt exogenous orientation and neutral or uncued trials. The participants’ task was to discriminate whether the images were symmetrical or not while fixating on the center of the screen to assure the manifestation of only covert attention mechanisms. Covert attention refers to the ability to orient attention by means of central control mechanisms alone, without head and eye movements. Trials with eye movements were excluded after inspection of eye-tracker recordings that were conducted throughout the task. During retrieval, participants conducted a source memory task in which they indicated the location where the images were presented during encoding. Memory for spatial context was superior during endogenous orientation than during exogenous orientation, whereas exogenous orientation was associated with a greater number of missed responses compared to the neutral trials. The formation of episodic memory representations with contextual details benefits from endogenous attention.

Relational problems are not fully solved by a temporal sequence of statistical learning episodes

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Vinter ◽  
P. Perruchet
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Temporal Sequence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Learning Research ◽  
The One

Clark & Thornton's conception finds an echo in implicit learning research, which shows that subjects may perform adaptively in complex structured situations through the use of simple statistical learning mechanisms. However, the authors fail to draw a distinction between, on the one hand, subjects' representations which emerge from type-1 learning mechanisms, and, on the other, their knowledge of the genuine abstract “recoding function” which defines a type-2 problem.

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