Year: 2018
Type: review
Abstract: Learning and processing natural language requires the ability to track syntactic relationships between words and phrases in a sentence, which are often separated by intervening material. These nonadjacent dependencies can be studied using artificial grammar learning paradigms and structured sequence processing tasks. These approaches have been used to demonstrate that human adults, infants and some nonhuman animals are able to detect and learn dependencies between nonadjacent elements within a sequence. However, learning nonadjacent dependencies appears to be more cognitively demanding than detecting dependencies between adjacent elements, and only occurs in certain circumstances. In this review, we discuss different types of nonadjacent dependencies in language and in artificial grammar learning experiments, and how these differences might impact learning. We summarize different types of perceptual cues that facilitate learning, by highlighting the relationship between dependent elements bringing them closer together either physically, attentionally, or perceptually. Finally, we review artificial grammar learning experiments in human adults, infants, and nonhuman animals, and discuss how similarities and differences observed across these groups can provide insights into how language is learned across development and how these language-related abilities might have evolved.
Source: Topics in Cognitive Science
DOI: 10.1111/tops.12381
Institutions: Newcastle University, University of Vienna, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Osnabrück University, University of Southern California, Utrecht University, University of Potsdam, University of Edinburgh, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,811
Awards: G2164392057, The evolution of linguistic complexity, ILCB: Institute of Language Communication and the Brain, G434337789, FWO Outgoing [PEGASUS]² Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Partnership agreement Andrea Ravignani, Cognitive functions underlying sequence processing in the macaque and human brain., G633352080, G6803667113, G6868616705, Chunking: the critical role of information compression in cognition
OpenAlex ID: W2890891710