Can we enhance domain-general learning abilities to improve language function?

Conway, Christopher M.; Gremp, Michelle A.; Walk, Anne M.; Bauernschmidt, Althea; Pisoni, David B.

doi:10.1515/9781934078242.305

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Future research could fruitfully attempt to disentangle the causal nature of this relationship. This may be achieved for instance through training studies that attempt to increase SL ability and then test if language performance improves via cognitive transfer (Conway, Gremp, Walk, Bauernschmidt, & Pisoni, 2012; Smith, Conway, Bauernschmidt, & Pisoni, 2015). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual statistical learning is related to natural language ability in adults: An ERP study

et al. 2017

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Statistical learning (SL) is believed to enable language acquisition by allowing individuals to learn regularities within linguistic input. However, neural evidence supporting a direct relationship between SL and language ability is scarce. We investigated whether there are associations between event-related potential (ERP) correlates of SL and language abilities while controlling for the general level of selective attention. Seventeen adults completed tests of visual SL, receptive vocabulary, grammatical ability, and sentence completion. Response times and ERPs showed that SL is related to receptive vocabulary and grammatical ability. ERPs indicated that the relationship between SL and grammatical ability was independent of attention while the association between SL and receptive vocabulary depended on attention. The implications of these dissociative relationships in terms of underlying mechanisms of SL and language are discussed. These results further elucidate the cognitive nature of the links between SL mechanisms and language abilities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual statistical learning is related to natural language ability in adults: An ERP study

et al. 2017

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“…In a related study, both groups of children also completed a sentence recognition task ( Conway et al, 2014a , b ), using the set of lexically controlled sentences developed by Eisenberg et al (2002) . The stimuli consisted of twenty lexically easy words (i.e., high word frequency, low neighborhood density) and twenty lexically hard words (i.e., low word frequency, high neighborhood density) embedded in short meaningful English sentences.…”

Section: Implicit Learning Of Sequential Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning and Memory Processes Following Cochlear Implantation: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle

et al. 2016

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At the present time, there is no question that cochlear implants (CIs) work and often work very well in quiet listening conditions for many profoundly deaf children and adults. The speech and language outcomes data published over the last two decades document quite extensively the clinically significant benefits of CIs. Although there now is a large body of evidence supporting the “efficacy” of CIs as a medical intervention for profound hearing loss in both children and adults, there still remain a number of challenging unresolved clinical and theoretical issues that deal with the “effectiveness” of CIs in individual patients that have not yet been successfully resolved. In this paper, we review recent findings on learning and memory, two central topics in the field of cognition that have been seriously neglected in research on CIs. Our research findings on sequence learning, memory and organization processes, and retrieval strategies used in verbal learning and memory of categorized word lists suggests that basic domain-general learning abilities may be the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of understanding the cognitive factors that underlie the enormous individual differences and variability routinely observed in speech and language outcomes following cochlear implantation.

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“…We are currently taking this approach by designing computerized tasks that target ISL abilities in adults and children as a way to improve not only ISL itself but also language abilities. Our preliminary work suggests that it does in fact appear that not only can ISL be improved through repetitive training, but that such improvements carry over to non-trained learning and language tasks in both typically developing adults and in a clinical group of children with a language delay (Conway, Gremp, Walk, Bauernschmidt, & Pisoni, 2012). A similar approach has been taken in the realm of working memory training (e.g., Klingberg, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Implicit statistical learning and language acquisition

Walk¹,

Conway²

2015

Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages

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Acquiring spoken language involves implicitly learning the statistical relations among language units. In this chapter, we review recent behavioral and neurophysiological findings from our research group that illuminate the relation of this type of 'implicit statistical learning' (ISL) to language acquisition. First, we review evidence illustrating that ISL mechanisms enable the learner to predict upcoming language units. Second, we show modality constraints affecting the operation of ISL mechanisms, with auditory and visual learning biased to learn different types of patterns. Third, we demonstrate that under certain developmental conditions typical ISL abilities are altered, which can detrimentally affect subsequent language acquisition. These findings highlight the experience-dependent nature of ISL and its relation to typical and atypical language acquisition.

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Can we enhance domain-general learning abilities to improve language function?

Cited by 3 publications

References 55 publications

Visual statistical learning is related to natural language ability in adults: An ERP study

Visual statistical learning is related to natural language ability in adults: An ERP study

Learning and Memory Processes Following Cochlear Implantation: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle

Implicit statistical learning and language acquisition

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