Abstract
The present study investigated whether a temporal hierarchical structure favors implicit learning. An artificial pitch grammar implemented with a set of tones was presented in two different temporal contexts, notably with either a strongly metrical structure or an isochronous structure. According to the Dynamic Attending Theory, external temporal regularities can entrain internal oscillators that guide attention over time, allowing for temporal expectations that influence perception of future events. Based on this framework, it was hypothesized that the metrical structure provides a benefit for artificial grammar learning in comparison to an isochronous presentation. Our study combined behavioral and event-related potential measurements. Behavioral results demonstrated similar learning in both participant groups. By contrast, analyses of event-related potentials showed a larger P300 component and an earlier N2 component for the strongly metrical group during the exposure phase and the test phase, respectively. These findings suggests that the temporal expectations in the strongly metrical condition helped listeners to better process the pitch dimension, leading to improved learning of the artificial grammar.
Highlights
Humans develop expectations about regularities occurring in structures encountered in everyday life
Participants are first exposed to grammatical sequences, and in the test phase they successfully provide grammaticality judgments that distinguish between new grammatical sequences and ungrammatical sequences without being able to explain their choice, suggesting implicit grammar knowledge acquired during the exposure phase
Procedure and Equipment For the present study, we have developed an adaptation of previously used implicit learning paradigms that aimed to avoid informing participants about the rule-governed nature of the grammatical melodies during the entire experiment and allowing for a more direct investigation of implicit learning processes
Summary
Humans develop expectations about regularities occurring in structures encountered in everyday life (e.g., language, music). Humans can learn structural regularities implicitly by mere exposure, that is, in an unconscious way. Implicit learning (IL) is the acquisition of knowledge without the intention to learn [1,2]. Three main paradigms to study IL are the serial reaction time task (SRTT) [3], artificial language learning (ALL) [4,5] and artificial grammar learning (AGL) [2]. Participants are first exposed to grammatical sequences, and in the test phase they successfully provide grammaticality judgments that distinguish between new grammatical sequences and ungrammatical sequences without being able to explain their choice, suggesting implicit grammar knowledge acquired during the exposure phase
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