Mirkovic, J. 1, 2 , Yee, M. 2 & Hayiou-Thomas, E. 2
1 York St John University, UK
2 University of York, UK
The knowledge of grammatical properties of words lies at the core of our ability to use language. These properties are thought to be learned from probabilistic phonological, distributional and semantic regularities (Monaghan et al., 2007). In the current study, we focus on the role of memory consolidation processes in this type of learning, and specifically in regularity abstraction (Gomez et al., 2006; Werchan & Gomez, 2014).
Twenty-three typically-developing ten-year-olds and 20 adults were trained on an artificial language mimicking grammatical gender. The words in the two 'genders' systematically varied in phonological, distributional and semantic properties. Participants were trained in a word-picture matching task, and were tested immediately following learning, and after 24hrs and 1 week. We assessed word learning and generalization of the 'grammatical' regularities to novel items.
Both adults and children showed good levels of word learning, with better performance in adults. Children preserved their word knowledge over time. Immediately after learning and following a 24hr delay adults showed good generalization of the most salient grammatical regularities. Children showed no evidence of generalization and there was no change over time. The findings are discussed in the context of developmental differences in memory systems thought to support grammar learning.