Statistical learning & Language

Recent advances in the cognitive sciences have demonstrated the brain’s ability to learn statistical associations or predictive relationships among a set of stimuli. For example, in natural language, the syllable “ro” is likely to be followed by “bot” but very rarely would be followed by “dot” (i.e., from a statistical standpoint, “ro-bot” is a much more frequent combination of sounds in the English language compared to “ro-dot”). Being sensitive to such statistical probabilities allows humans and other organisms to make sense of the underlying environmental regularities that define the world, including language, a richly structured domain that children acquire largely through incidental exposure.

Importantly, our research group has provided some of the first empirical evidence demonstrating a link between non-linguistic learning ability (i.e. statistical learning of visual sequence patterns) and language competence in adults (Conway et al., 2010), children (Conway et al. 2011b), and infants (Shafto, Conway, et al., 2012), using both behavioral and ERP methodology (Christiansen, Conway, & Onnis, 2012). These findings suggest an overlap in the neural and cognitive mechanisms involved in language and statistical learning of sequential patterns, which has important implications for understanding typical and atypical language development. We have leveraged these findings to begin to elucidate the connection between statistical learning abilities and language delays observed in deaf and hard of hearing children. Current and future research will explore the extent to which disturbances to statistical learning might provide a partial explanation of deficits observed in children with other learning and language difficulties, such as autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

{Please note that all publications are copyrighted with their respective publishers (unless otherwise noted) and are to be used for educational and research purposes only.}

Daltrozzo, J., Emerson, S.N., Deocampo, J.A., Singh, S., Freggens, M., Branum-Martin, L. & Conway, C.M. (2017). Visual statistical learning is related to natural language processing ability in adults: An ERP study. Brain and Language, 166, 40-51. [pdf]

Pisoni, D.B., Kronenberger, W.G., Chandramouli, S.H., & Conway, C.M. (2016). Learning and memory processes following cochlear implantation: The missing piece of the puzzle. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:493. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00493. [pdf]

Singh, S., Walk, A.M., & Conway, C.M. (2016). Visual statistical learning deficits in children with developmental dyslexia: An event related potential study. In Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 396-401). Philadelphia, PA: Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]

Smith, G.N.L., Valdez, G.E., Walk, A.M., Purdy, J.D., & Conway, C.M. (2016). Exploring the neural mechanisms supporting structured sequence processing and language using event-related potentials: Some preliminary findings. In Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1481-1486). Philadelphia, PA: Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]

Eghbalzad, L., Deocampo, J.A., & Conway, C.M. (2016). Statistical learning ability can overcome the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on language development. In Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2129-2134). Philadelphia, PA: Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]

Deocampo, J.A. & Conway, C.M. (2016). A developmental shift in the relationship between sequential learning, executive function, and language ability as revealed by event-related potentials. In Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1074-1079). Philadelphia, PA: Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]

Walk, A.M. & Conway, C.M. (2015). Implicit statistical learning and language acquisition: Experience-dependent constraints on learning. In P. Rebuschat (Ed.), Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages (pp. 191-212). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. [pdf]

Deocampo, J.A., Conway, C.M., Eghbalzad, L., & Daltrozzo, J. (2014). Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of sequential learning are associated with language development in children. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scasseellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2115-2120). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]

Walk, A.M. & Conway, C.M. (2013). Two distinct sequence learning mechanisms for syntax acquisition and word learning. In G. Hollich & L. Gogate (Eds.), Theoretical and Computational Models of Word Learning: Trends in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence (pp. 350-369). Hershey, PA; IGI Global. [pdf]

Conway, C.M., Deocampo, J., Walk, A.M., Anaya, E.M., & Pisoni, D.B. (2014). Deaf children with cochlear implants do not appear to use sentence context to help recognize spoken words. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57(6), 2174-2190. doi: 10.1044/2014_JSLHR-L-13-0236 [pdf]

Christiansen, M.H., Conway, C.M., & Onnis, L. (2012). Similar neural correlates for language and sequential learning: Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27, 231-256. [pdf]

Shafto, C.L., Conway, C.M., Field, S.L., & Houston, D.M. (2012). Visual sequence learning in infancy: Domain-general and domain-specific associations with language. Infancy, 17, 247-271. [pdf]

Conway, C.M., Pisoni, D.B., Anaya, E.M., Karpicke, J., & Henning, S.C. (2011b). Implicit sequence learning in deaf children with cochlear implants. Developmental Science, 14, 69-82. [pdf]

Conway, C.M., Bauernschmidt, A., Huang, S.S., & Pisoni, D.B. (2010). Implicit statistical learning in language processing: Word predictability is the key. Cognition, 114, 356-371. [pdf]

Conway, C.M. & Pisoni, D.B. (2008). Neurocognitive basis of implicit learning of sequential structure and its relation to language processing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1145, 113-131. [pdf]

Conway, C.M., Karpicke, J., & Pisoni, D.B. (2007). Contribution of implicit sequence learning to spoken language processing: Some preliminary findings with hearing adults. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 12, 317-334. [pdf]

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