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SUMMARY:Implicit and explicit learning of syntactic rules - Patrick Rebusc
 hat (RCEAL)
DTSTART:20070529T150000Z
DTEND:20070529T163000Z
UID:TALK7227@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Teresa Parodi
DESCRIPTION:It is common to refer to language acquisition as a real-world 
 phenomenon where most learning proceeds implicitly\, i.e. independently of
  the deliberate intention to learn and in the absence of awareness of what
  was learned.  At the same time\, however\, little effort has been made\, 
 in implicit learning research\, to employ stimuli that resemble natural la
 nguages more closely than the letter or tone sequences commonly found\, fo
 r example\, in Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) studies. In this talk\, w
 e report the findings of a series of experiments that applied AGL methodol
 ogy and awareness measurement techniques to the learning of natural langua
 ge syntax. \n\nThe aims of these experiments were two-fold. Firstly\, we s
 ought to determine whether natural language syntax\, in this case verb-pla
 cement rules\, could be acquired implicitly\, i.e. incidentally and withou
 t awareness of the learning outcome. Secondly\, we aimed at exploring what
  role\, if any\, awareness plays in the acquisition of syntactic rules. Fo
 r this purpose\, a semi-artificial grammar\, consisting of an English lexi
 con and German syntax\, was used in order to generate the stimulus sentenc
 es. Different subject groups were trained on the grammar by means of diffe
 rent exposure conditions (e.g.\, implicit vs. explicit\, auditory vs. audi
 ovisual modes\, etc.) In the testing phase\, performance on a grammaticali
 ty judgment task was used a measure of learning. Awareness was assessed by
  means of confidence judgments\, source judgments\, verbal reports\, and a
 ccuracy estimates. \n\nThe results of our experiments indicate that adults
  are able to acquire regularities of a novel language after a relatively b
 rief exposure period\, while processing sentences for meaning and under in
 cidental learning conditions. However\, whatever learning took place in th
 e experiments was explicit. Additional research is currently being carried
  out in order to explore whether there are conditions under which adults c
 an acquire syntactic rules implicitly. 
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
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