Article published in:
Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages
Edited by Patrick Rebuschat
[Studies in Bilingualism 48] 2015
► pp. 139–166

The learnability of language

Insights from the implicit learning literature

| LEAD – CNRS UMR5022, Université de Bourgogne
| LEAD – CNRS UMR5022, Université de Bourgogne
The issue of the learnability of language contrasts the proposals of Chomsky (e.g. 1965), who claimed that the major part of language mastery involves innate domain-specific structures, to more recent nonnativist approaches, from the usage-based theories to Bayesian models, which contend that language acquisition rests on all-purpose domain-general learning processes. This chapter aims at examining the potential contribution to this issue of the literature on implicit learning, defined as the set of studies addressing the question of how participants learn in incidental conditions when they are faced with complex situations governed by arbitrary rules in laboratory settings. Overall, a striking parallelism emerges between usage-based approaches of language acquisition and implicit learning results, opening to a common research agenda.
Published online: 24 September 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.48.07per
Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

No author info given
2020.  In Cognitive Mechanisms of Learning, ► pp. 261 ff. Crossref logo
Adolphe Rondal, Jean
2017. Peut-on se dispenser des catégories grammaticales, des hiérarchies et des règles formelles dans l’acquisition de la syntaxe en langue naturelle ?. L’Année psychologique 117:01 ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Adolphe Rondal, Jean
2017. Peut-on se dispenser des catégories grammaticales, des hiérarchies et des règles formelles dans l’acquisition de la syntaxe en langue naturelle ?. L’Année psychologique ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Andringa, Sible & Patrick Rebuschat
2015. NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT LEARNING. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 37:2 ► pp. 185 ff. Crossref logo
Hulstijn, Jan H.
2019. An Individual-Differences Framework for Comparing Nonnative With Native Speakers: Perspectives From BLC Theory. Language Learning 69 ► pp. 157 ff. Crossref logo
Suzuki, Yuichi & Robert DeKeyser
2017. The Interface of Explicit and Implicit Knowledge in a Second Language: Insights From Individual Differences in Cognitive Aptitudes. Language Learning 67:4 ► pp. 747 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 03 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

References

References

Altmann, G.T.M., Dienes, Z., & Goode, A.
(1995) Modality independence of implicitly learned grammatical knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 899–912. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B. & Lieven, E.V.M.
(2011) Child language acquisition: Contrasting theoretical approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bannard, C., & Matthews, D.
(2008) Stored word sequences in language learning: The effect of familiarity on children's repetition of four-word combinations. Psychological Science, 19(3), 241–248. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berwick, R.C., Pietroski, P., Yankama, B., & Chomsky, N.
(2011) Poverty of the stimulus revisited. Cognitive Science, 35(7), 1207–1242. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bigand, E., Perruchet, P., & Boyer, M.
(1998) Implicit learning of an artificial grammar of musical timbres. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive/Current Psychology of Cognition, 17(3), 577–600.Google Scholar
Brooks, L.R.
(1978) Nonanalytic concept formation and memory for instances. In E. Rosch & B.B. Lloyd (Eds.), Cognition and categorization (pp. 169–211). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Brown, A.S.
(1988) Encountering misspellings and spelling performance: Why wrong isn’t right. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 488–494. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, J.
(2007) Frequency of use and the organization of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N.
(1965) Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
(2011) Language and other cognitive systems. What is special about language? Language Learning and Development, 7(4), 263–278. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Christiansen, M.H., & Chater, N.
(2008) Language as shaped by the brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31(5), 489–558. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Conway, C.M., & Christiansen, M.H.
(2005) Modality-constrained statistical learning of tactile, visual, and auditory sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31(1), 24–39. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Croft, W.
(1991) Syntactic categories and grammatical relations: The cognitive organization of information. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Desmet, C., Poulin-Charronnat, B., Lalitte, P., & Perruchet, P.
(2009) Implicit learning of nonlocal musical rules: A comment on Kuhn and Dienes (2005). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35(1), 299–305. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Diessel, H.
2007 Frequency effects in language acquisition, language use, and diachronic change. New Ideas in Psychology, 25, 108–127. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dulany, D.E.
(1991) Conscious representation and thought systems. In R.S. Wyer, & T.K. Srull (Eds.), Advances in social cognition (Vol. 4; pp. 97–120), Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Endress, A.D., & Mehler, J.
(2009) The surprising power of statistical learning: When fragment knowledge leads to false memories of unheard words. Journal of Memory and Language, 60, 351–367. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Evans, N., & Levinson, S.C.
(2009) The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32(5), 429–494. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Frensch, P.A., & Miner, C.S.
(1994) Effects of presentation rate and individual differences in short-term memory capacity on an indirect measure of serial learning. Memory & Cognition, 22(1), 95–110. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Freudenthal, D., Pine, J.M., & Gobet, F.
(2006) Modelling the development of children's use of optional infinitives in Dutch and English using MOSAIC. Cognitive Science, 30, 277–310. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Giroux, I., & Rey, A.
(2009) Lexical and sublexical units in speech perception. Cognitive Science, 33(2), 260–272. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gregg, K.R.
(2003) The state of emergentism in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 19, 95–128. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, M.D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W.T.
(2002) The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569–1579. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, J., & Sebald, A.
(2005) When obvious covariations are not even learned implicitly. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 17(4), 449–480. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ibbotson, P.
(2013) The scope of usage-based theory. Frontiers in Psycholology, 4(Article 255), 1–15.Google Scholar
Jiménez, L., & Méndez, C.
(1999) Which attention is needed for implicit sequence learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 25(1), 236–259. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, T., & Shanks, D.R.
(2001) Abstractionist and processing accounts of implicit learning. Cognitive Psychology, 42(1), 61–112. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A.
(1992) Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press/Bradford Books.Google Scholar
Kemp, C., Perfors, A., & Tenenbaum, J.
(2007) Learning overhypotheses with hierarchical Bayesian models. Developmental Science, 10(3), 307–321. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Logan, D.G., & Etherton, J.L.
(1994) What is learned during automatization? The role of attention in constructing an instance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20(5), 1022–1050. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lotz, A., & Kinder, A.
(2006) Transfer in artificial grammar learning: The role of repetition information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32(4), 707–715. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mackintosh, N.J.
(1997) Has the wheel turned full circle? Fifty years of learning theory, 1946-1996. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50A(4), 879–898.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
(2004) A multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 31, 883–914. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2010) Language development. In M. Borstein & M. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental science: An advanced textbook (pp. 467–508). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Mathews, R.C., Buss, R.R., Stanley, W.B., Blanchard-Fields, F., Cho, J.R., & Druhan, B.
(1989) Role of implicit and explicit processes in learning from examples: A synergistic effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15(6), 1083–1100. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Medin, D.L., Schaffer, M.M.
(1978) Context theory of classification learning. Psychological Review, 85, 207–238. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Misyak, J.B., Goldstein, M.H., & Christiansen, M.H.
(2012) Statistical-sequential learning in development. In Rebuschat & Williams (Eds.) (pp.Statistical learning and language acquisition, 13–54).
Monaghan, P.
(2011) Design features of language emerge from general purpose learning mechanisms. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society . Boston, MA: Cognitive Science Society.
Newport, E.L.
(2011) The modularity issue in language acquisition: A rapprochement? Comments on Gallistel and Chomsky. Language Learning and Development, 7(4), 279–286. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Onnis, L.
(2012) The potential contribution of statistical learning to second language acquisition. In Rebuschat & Williams (Eds.) (pp. Statistical learning and language acquisition, 203–235).
Pacton, S., & Perruchet, P.
(2008) An attention-based associative account of adjacent and nonadjacent dependency learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34(1), 80–96. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pelucchi, B., Hay, J.F., & Saffran, J.R.
(2009) Learning in reverse: Eight-month-old infants track backward transitional probabilities. Cognition, 113(2), 244–247. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., Griffiths, T.L., & Xu, F.
(2011) A tutorial introduction to Bayesian models of cognitive development. Cognition, 120(3), 302–321. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., & Regier, T.
(2011) The learnability of abstract syntactic principles. Cognition, 118, 306–338. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P.
(2008) Implicit learning. In J. Byrne (Ed.), Cognitive psychology of memory (Vol.2): of Learning and memory: A comprehensive reference (pp. 597–621). Oxford: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Desaulty, S.
(2008) A role for backward transitional probabilities in word segmentation? Memory & Cognition, 36(7), 1299–1305. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., Gallego, J., & Pacteau, C.
(1992) A reinterpretation of some earlier evidence for abstractiveness of implicitly acquired knowledge. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 44A(2), 193–210. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., Gallego, J., & Savy, I.
(1990) A critical reappraisal of the evidence for unconscious abstraction of deterministic rules in complex experimental situations. Cognitive Psychology, 22(4), 493–516. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Pacteau, C.
(1990) Synthetic grammar learning: Implicit rule abstraction or explicit fragmentary knowledge? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 119(3), 264–275. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Pacton, S.
(2006) Implicit learning and statistical learning: One phenomenon, two approaches. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(5), 233–238. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Poulin-Charronnat, B.
(2012a) Word segmentation: Trading the (new but poor) concept of statistical computation for the (old, but richer) associative approach. In Rebuschat & Williams (Eds.) (pp. Statistical learning and language acquisition, 119–143).
(2012b) Beyond transitional probability computations: Extracting word-like units when only statistical information is available. Journal of Memory and Language, 66, 807–818. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., Rey, A., Hivert, E., & Pacton, S.
(2006) Do distractors interfere with memory for study pairs in associative recognition? Memory & Cognition, 34(5), 1046–1054. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Vinter, A.
(2002) The self-organizing consciousness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, 297–388.Google Scholar
Pinker, S.
(1996) Language learnability and language development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pitel, A.L., Perruchet, P., Vabret, F., Desgranges, B., Eustache, F., & Beaunieux, H.
(2010) The advantage of errorless learning for the acquisition of new concepts' labels in alcoholics. Psychological Medicine, 40(3), 497–502. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pothos, E.M.
(2007) Theories of artificial grammar learning. Psychological Bulletin, 133(2), 227–244. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reber, A.S.
(1967) Implicit learning of artificial grammars. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 6, 855–863. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reber, A.S., & Lewis, S.
(1977) Implicit learning: An analysis of the form and structure of a body of tacit knowledge. Cognition, 5, 333–361. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Redington, M., & Chater, N.
(1998) Connectionist and statistical approaches to language acquisition: A distributional perspective. Language and Cognitive Processes, 12(2-3), 129–191. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Redington, M. & Chater, N.
(2002) Knowledge representation and transfer in artificial grammar learning. In R. French & A. Cleeremans (Eds.), Implicit Learning and Consciousness. Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Rebuschat, P., & Williams, J.
(Eds.) 2012 Statistical learning and language acquisition. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
① ② ③ ④ ⑤
Rey, A., Perruchet, P., & Fagot, J.
(2012) Centre-embedded structures are a by-product of associative learning and working memory constraints: Evidence from baboons (Papio Papio). Cognition, 123(1), 180–184. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Roediger, H.L., & Marsh, E.J.
(2005) The positive and negative consequences of multiple-choice testing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31, 1155–1159. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Saffran, J.R., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L.
(1996) Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274(5294), 1926–1928. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Saffran, J.R., Johnson, E.K., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L.
(1999) Statistical learning of tone sequences by human infants and adults. Cognition, 70(1), 27–52. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Seidenberg, M.S., & MacDonald, M.C.
(1999) A probabilistic constraints approach to language acquisition and processing. Cognitive Science, 23, 569–588. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Servan-Schreiber, E., & Anderson, J.R.
(1990) Learning artificial grammars with competitive chunking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16(4), 592–608. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shanks, D.R.
(2005) Implicit learning. In K. Lamberts & R. Goldstone (Eds.), Handbook of cognition (pp. 202–220). London: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shanks, D.R., Johnstone, T., & Staggs, L.
(1997) Abstraction processes in artificial grammar learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50A(1), 216–252. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, B.F.
(1957) Verbal behavior. New York, NY: Appleton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Smith, K.
(2012) Evolutionary perspectives on statistical learning. In Rebuschat & Williams (Eds.) (pp. Statistical learning and language acquisition, 409–431).
Stadler, M.A.
(1995) Role of attention in implicit learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(3), 674–685. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, S.P., & Newport, E.L.
(2007) Statistical learning of syntax: The role of transitional probability. Language Learning and Development, 3(1), 1–42. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thorndike, E.L.
(1932) The fundamentals of learning. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tillmann, B., & McAdams, S.
(2004) Implicit learning of musical timbre sequences: Statistical regularities confronted with acoustical (dis)similarities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30(5), 1131–1142. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tily, H., Frank, M.C., & Jaeger, T.F.
(2011) The learnability of constructed languages reflects typological patterns. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society .
Tomasello, M.
(2003) Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, J.N., & Kuribara, C.
(2008) Comparing a nativist and emergentist approach to the initial stage of SLA: An investigation of Japanese scrambling. Lingua, 118, 522–553. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J.N., & Rebuschat, P.
(2012) Statistical learning and syntax: What can be learned, and what difference does meaning make? In Rebuschat & Williams (Eds.) (pp. Statistical learning and language acquisition, 237–264).
Witt, A., & Vinter, A.
(2012) Artificial grammar learning in children: Abstraction of rules or sensitivity to perceptual features? Psychological Research, 76(1), 97–110. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wright, R.L., & Burton, A.M.
(1995) Implicit learning of an invariant: Just say no. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48A(3), 783–796. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wu, R., & Kirkham, N.Z.
(2010) No two cues are alike: Depth of learning during infancy is dependent on what orients attention. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107(2), 118–136. CrossrefGoogle Scholar