Children retain implicitly learned phonological sequences better than adults: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Whereas adults often rely on explicit memory, children appear to excel in implicit memory, which plays an important role in the acquisition of various cognitive skills, such as those involved in language. The current study aimed to test the assertion of an age-dependent shift in implicit versus explicit learning within a theoretical framework that explains the link between implicit sequence memory and word-form acquisition, using the Hebb repetition paradigm. We conducted a one-year, multiple-session longitudinal study in which we presented auditory sequences of syllables, co-presented with pictures of aliens, for immediate serial recall by a group of children (8-9 years) and by an adult group. The repetition of one Hebb sequence was explicitly announced, while the repetition of another Hebb sequence was unannounced and, therefore, implicit. Despite their overall inferior recall performance, the children showed better offline retention of the implicit Hebb sequence, compared with adults who showed a significant decrement across the delays. Adults had gained more explicit knowledge of the implicit sequence than children, but this could not explain the age-dependent decline in the delayed memory for it. There was no significant age-effect for delayed memory of the explicit Hebb sequence, with both age groups showing retention. Overall performance by adults was positively correlated with measures of post-learning awareness. Performance by children was positively correlated with vocabulary knowledge. We conclude that children outperform adults in the retention over time of implicitly learned phonological sequences that will gradually consolidate into novel word-forms. The findings are discussed in the light of maturational differences for implicit versus explicit memory systems that also play a role in language acquisition. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/G5nOfJB72t4.

The contribution of serial order short-term memory and long-term learning to reading acquisition: A longitudinal study.

“…Before starting the learning phase, the children were required to recall one filler sequence, which served as practice trial. , 1987;Ordonez Magro et al, 2018;Smalle et al, 2016;Smalle, Page, Duyck, Edwards, & Szmalec, 2017;Staels & Van den Broeck, 2015). This method takes into account both the absolute and relative position of the recalled items.…”

“…In order to make sure that serial order learning occurred in the Hebb repetition tasks, we first analyzed our Hebb data by collapsing the trials of each sequence type into first-and second half scores (see also Archibald & Joanisse, 2013;Mosse & Jarrold, 2008;Ordonez Magro et al, 2018;Smalle et al, 2016;Smalle et al, 2017). The data on trials 1 to 4 were collapsed into a first half score and the data on trials 6 to 9 were collapsed into a second half score.…”

Novel stress phonotactics are learnable by English speakers: Novel tone phonotactics are not

“…The big picture is that our study, together with the other studies of second-order phonotactic learning in production, are informative about both consolidation effects (the need for sleep in learning the stress rule) and age of acquisition/ critical periods (the unlearnability of tone by English-speaking adults). At present, no learning theory simultaneously addresses both of these important questions (see Smalle, Page, Duyck, Edwards, & Szmalec, 2018), largely because no data sources show both clear sleep dependencies and variation in learnability that could be due to age and experience. The present studies take a small, but important step, toward providing such data.…”

Does Extreme Language Control Training Improve Cognitive Control? A Comparison of Professional Interpreters, L2 Teachers and Monolinguals

“…We also predict L2 teachers to outperform monolinguals, in line with prior work suggesting bilingual advantages on STM ( Bialystok et al, 2008 ; Morales et al, 2013 ; Grundy and Timmer, 2016 ). Furthermore, it has been shown that Hebb learning can be considered as an analog of novel word-form learning (e.g., Szmalec et al, 2009 ; Smalle et al, 2017 ). When a particular sequence of phonemes is repeated, performance for the repeating Hebb sequence improves relative to non-repeating filler sequences ( Hebb, 1961 ).…”