Minier, L. 1, 2 , Fagot, J. 1, 2 & Rey, A. 1, 2
1 National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS, France)
2 Brain and Language Research Institute (BLRI)
In a recent study examining the fine-grained dynamics of regularity extraction in non-human primates, Minier, Fagot & Rey (2014) showed that in a regular pattern ABC, the extraction of embedded pattern positioned at the end (BC) was faster than the extraction of initial embedded pattern (AB). This result was interpreted as a cumulative effect of the consistently present contextual information A preceding BC, compared to the inconsistent contextual information preceding AB. Using the same paradigm combining the artificial language paradigm (Saffran, Neport & Aslin, 1996) and the Serial Response Time task (SRT, Nissen & Bullemer, 1987), we investigated the extent of this cumulative contextual effect by testing monkeys on longer sequences, ie. ABCD. First, we replicated Minier et al.'s result, showing an advantage of the embedded pattern BC over AB in a four-terms pattern ABCD. Second, we found that RTs for CD did not differ from RTs for BC. This new result suggests that the cognitive system, at least in baboons, does not take advantage of an additional contextual information provided by a fourth term but seems limited to the two preceding elements to predict embedded pattern during learning.