Facilitating Implicit Learning of Multiple Non-adjacent Dependencies Regardless of Language Experience: The Role of a Brief Pre-exposure

Abstract

In natural language, multiple non-adjacent dependencies arise as syntactic complexity increases and play an essential role in generating and understanding complex syntactic structures (e.g., in cross-serial dependencies). In the lab, showing substantial learning of such dependencies is challenging. In this study, we explored whether a brief prior exposure of an easy-to-learn long distance dependency structure could facilitate the acquisition of difficult-to-learn multiple non-adjacent dependencies (Experiment 1) and whether the effect is constrained by prior long-term knowledge of such types of dependency (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we found that the subsequent implicit learning of the new multiple non-adjacent dependencies could benefit from brief prior exposure to learnable non-adjacent dependencies compared to Non-Learnable and Unstructured conditions (which have unreliable or neutral prior materials). This facilitative effect was neither cumulative learning over time nor a simple superimposition of the pre-exposure and exposure phases. In Experiment 2, we further found that the brief prior exposure could override biases from long-term experience to improve implicit learning of multiple non-adjacent rules which conflicted with native language experience. The results reported in both studies have been certified as computationally reproducible by an independent statistician. These findings demonstrated that implicitly acquiring multiple non-adjacent dependencies can be facilitated by brief prior exposure to a learnable structure. This powerful facilitative effect can override the constraints provided by long-term experience.