Implicit learning of nonadjacent phonotactic dependencies in the perception of spoken language

Abstract

We investigated the learning of nonadjacent phonotactic dependencies in adults. Following previous research examining learning of dependencies at a grammatical level (Gomez, 2002), we manipulated the co-occurrence of nonadjacent phonological segments within a spoken syllable. Each listener was exposed to consonant-vowel-consonant nonword stimuli produced by one of two phonological grammars. Both languages contained the same adjacent dependencies between the initial consonant-vowel and final vowel-consonant sequences but differed on the co-occurrences of initial and final consonants. The number of possible types of vowels that intervened between the initial and final consonants was also manipulated. Listeners learning of nonadjacent segmental dependencies were evaluated in a speeded recognition task in which they heard (1) old nonwords on which they had been trained, (2) new nonwords generated by the grammar on which they had been trained, and (3) new nonwords generated by the grammar on which they had not been trained. The results provide evidence for listener’s sensitivity to nonadjacent dependencies. However, this sensitivity is manifested as an inhibitory competition effect rather than a facilitative effect on pattern processing. [Research supported by Research Grant No. R01 DC 0265802 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health.]