Does complexity matter? Meta-analysis of learner performance in artificial grammar tasks

Complexity has been shown to affect performance on artificial grammar learning (AGL) tasks (categorization of test items as grammatical/ungrammatical according to the implicitly trained grammar rules). However, previously published AGL experiments did not utilize consistent measures to investigate the comprehensive effect of grammar complexity on task performance. The present study focused on computerizing Bollt and Jones's (2000) technique of calculating topological entropy (TE), a quantitative measure of AGL charts' complexity, with the aim of examining associations between grammar systems' TE and learners' AGL task performance. We surveyed the literature and identified 56 previous AGL experiments based on 10 different grammars that met the sampling criteria. Using the automated matrix-lift-action method, we assigned a TE value for each of these 10 previously used AGL systems and examined its correlation with learners' task performance. The meta-regression analysis showed a significant correlation, demonstrating that the complexity effect transcended the different settings and conditions in which the categorization task was performed. The results reinforced the importance of using this new automated tool to uniformly measure grammar systems' complexity when experimenting with and evaluating the findings of AGL studies.

[1]  J. Ziegler,et al.  Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory. , 2005, Psychological bulletin.

[2]  Marina Nespor,et al.  Signal-Driven Computations in Speech Processing , 2002, Science.

[3]  John R. Vokey,et al.  Abstract analogies and abstracted grammars: Comments on Reber (1989) and Mathews et al. (1989). , 1991 .

[4]  Pienie Zwitserlood,et al.  Increasing dopamine levels in the brain improves feedback-based procedural learning in healthy participants: An artificial-grammar-learning experiment , 2010, Neuropsychologia.

[5]  R. Tunney.  Sources of confidence judgments in implicit cognition , 2005, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[6]  T. C. Lorsbach,et al.  The development of explicit and implicit forms of memory in learning disabled children , 1989 .

[7]  D J K Mewhort,et al.  The influence of grammatical, local, and organizational redundancy on implicit learning: an analysis using information theory. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[8]  David R. Shanks,et al.  Abstractionist and Processing Accounts of Implicit Learning , 2001, Cognitive Psychology.

[9]  E. Bos,et al.  Effects of grammar complexity on artificial grammar learning , 2008, Memory & cognition.

[10]  N. Chater,et al.  Does stimulus appearance affect learning? , 2006, The American journal of psychology.

[11]  A. Reber.  Implicit learning and tacit knowledge , 1993 .

[12]  R. Reber,et al.  The use of Control Groups in Artificial Grammar Learning , 2003, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[13]  L R Squire,et al.  The information acquired during artificial grammar learning. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[14]  R N Aslin,et al.  Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants , 1996, Science.

[15]  B. Newell,et al.  The subliminal mere exposure effect does not generalize to structurally related stimuli. , 2003, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[16]  Arnaud Witt,et al.  Artificial grammar learning in children: abstraction of rules or sensitivity to perceptual features? , 2012, Psychological research.

[17]  Morten H. Christiansen,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article Statistical Learning Within and Between Modalities Pitting Abstract Against Stimulus-Specific Representations , 2022 .

[18]  Michael A. Jones,et al.  The Complexity of Artificial Grammars , 2000 .

[19]  Arthur S Reber,et al.  Implicit Learning in Children and Adults With Williams Syndrome , 2003, Developmental neuropsychology.

[20]  Todd M. Bailey,et al.  AGL StimSelect: Software for automated selection of stimuli for artificial grammar learning , 2008, Behavior research methods.

[21]  R. Mathews,et al.  Role of Implicit and Explicit Processes in Learning From Examples : A Synergistic Effect , 2004 .

[22]  Alan Baddeley,et al.  The contribution of phonological short-term memory to artificial grammar learning , 2011, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[23]  E. Newport,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Ustening (and Learning) out of the Comer of Your Ear , 2022 .

[24]  Barbara J Knowlton,et al.  Visual feature learning in artificial grammar classification. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[25]  E. Pothos.  Expectations about stimulus structure in implicit learning , 2005, Memory & cognition.

[26]  D. Shanks,et al.  Two mechanisms in implicit artificial grammar learning? Comment on Meulemans and Van der Linden (1997). , 1999 .

[27]  M W Kirkhart.  The Nature of Declarative and Nondeclarative Knowledge for Implicit and Explicit Learning , 2001, The Journal of general psychology.

[28]  Douglas J. K. Mewhort,et al.  Applying an exemplar model to the artificial-grammar task: String completion and performance on individual items , 2010, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[29]  A. Vinter,et al.  Learning implicitly to produce avoided behaviours , 2011, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[30]  Joseph Tzelgov,et al.  Modes of knowledge acquisition and retrieval in artificial grammar learning , 2010, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[31]  Z. Dienes,et al.  The conscious, the unconscious, and familiarity. , 2008, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[32]  Julia L. Evans,et al.  Statistical learning in children with specific language impairment. , 2009, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[33]  Ron Sun,et al.  Effects of model-based and memory-based processing on speed and accuracy of grammar string generation. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[34]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Impaired implicit learning in schizophrenia. , 2008, Neuropsychology.

[35]  E. Pothos,et al.  Investigating learning deficits associated with dyslexia. , 2004, Dyslexia.

[36]  Joanne M. Williams,et al.  Artificial grammar learning in primary school children with and without developmental dyslexia , 2009, Annals of dyslexia.

[37]  N. Mackintosh,et al.  Psychometric intelligence dissociates implicit and explicit learning. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[38]  L. Squire,et al.  Artificial grammar learning depends on implicit acquisition of both abstract and exemplar-specific information. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[39]  P. Peigneux,et al.  Exploration of implicit artificial grammar learning in Parkinson's disease. , 1999, Acta neurologica Belgica.

[40]  P. Higham,et al.  Dissociations of grammaticality and specific similarity effects in artificial grammar learning. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[41]  Philip A. Higham,et al.  Chunks are not enough: the insufficiency of feature frequency-based explanations of artificial grammar learning (in special issue on music cognition and performance) , 1997 .

[42]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Learning Artificial Grammars With Competitive Chunking , 1990 .

[43]  John R. Vokey,et al.  Abstract analogies and abstracted grammars: Comments on Reber and Mathews et al. , 1991 .

[44]  Thierry Meulemans,et al.  Associative chunk strength in artificial grammar learning , 1997 .

[45]  Thomas F Münte,et al.  Implicit Learning is Intact in Adult Developmental Dyslexic Readers: Evidence from the Serial Reaction Time Task and Artificial Grammar Learning , 2006, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[46]  Axel Cleeremans,et al.  Implicit learning: news from the front , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[47]  A. Reber.  Transfer of syntactic structure in synthetic languages. , 1969 .

[48]  Stefan Knecht,et al.  Electrical Stimulation of Broca's Area Enhances Implicit Learning of an Artificial Grammar , 2010, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[49]  L R Squire,et al.  Intact learning of artificial grammars and intact category learning by patients with Parkinson's disease. , 1999, Behavioral neuroscience.

[50]  D Broadbent,et al.  Implicit and explicit knowledge bases in artificial grammar learning. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[51]  I. Cross,et al.  Incidental and online learning of melodic structure , 2011, Consciousness and Cognition.

[52]  Emmanuel M. Pothos,et al.  An Entropy Model for Artificial Grammar Learning , 2010, Front. Psychology.

[53]  Annie Vinter,et al.  Learning and development: The implicit knowledge assumption reconsidered. , 1998 .

[54]  A. Endress,et al.  Rapid learning of syllable classes from a perceptually continuous speech stream , 2007, Cognition.

[55]  Pierre Perruchet,et al.  Synthetic Grammar Learning : Implicit Rule Abstraction or Explicit Fragmentary Knowledge ? Pierre Perruchet and Chantal Pacteau , 1990 .

[56]  Paul J. Reber,et al.  Neural Correlates of Artificial Grammar Learning , 2002, NeuroImage.

[57]  R. Rosas,et al.  ADHD children outperform normal children in an artificial grammar implicit learning task: ERP and RT evidence , 2010, Consciousness and Cognition.

[58]  R. A. Carlson,et al.  A case of syntactical learning and judgment: How conscious and how abstract? , 1984 .

[59]  John McDowall,et al.  Preserved Implicit Learning on Both the Serial Reaction Time Task and Artificial Grammar in Patients with Parkinson's Disease , 2001, Brain and Cognition.

[60]  N. Chater,et al.  Transfer in artificial grammar learning : A reevaluation , 1996 .

[61]  A. Reber,et al.  Implicit preferences: The role(s) of familiarity in the structural mere exposure effect , 2004, Consciousness and Cognition.

[62]  M. L. Kelly,et al.  Do children with developmental dyslexia have impairments in implicit learning? , 2010, Dyslexia.

[63]  T. Meulemans,et al.  Intact implicit learning in schizophrenia. , 2001, The American journal of psychiatry.

[64]  Robert F. Bornstein,et al.  Subliminal mere exposure effects. , 1992 .

[65]  Matt Zucker.  Modes of Knowledge Acquisition , 2013 .

[66]  Gary F. Marcus,et al.  German Inflection: The Exception That Proves the Rule , 1995, Cognitive Psychology.

[67]  A. Reber.  Implicit learning of artificial grammars , 1967 .

[68]  Todd M. Bailey,et al.  The role of similarity in artificial grammar learning. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[69]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[70]  Developmental Dyslexia and implicit learning: Evidence from an AGL transfer study , 2010 .