Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:12:46.214Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

IMPLICIT LEARNING OF SEMANTIC PREFERENCES OF VERBS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Albertyna Paciorek  and
John N. Williams
Albertyna Paciorek*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
John N. Williams
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Albertyna Paciorek, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, CB3 9DP. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previous studies of semantic implicit learning in language have only examined learning grammatical form-meaning connections in which learning could have been supported by prior linguistic knowledge. In this study we target the domain of verb meaning, specifically semantic preferences regarding novel verbs (e.g., the preference for a novel verb to take abstract objects). Using a reaction time methodology we show that, after exposure to correct verb-noun combinations, reaction times to incorrect combinations are slowed down even for participants who are unaware of the semantic regularity. This effect was obtained on a decision that was irrelevant to the actual underlying regularity, suggesting that the knowledge that has been acquired exerts its influence automatically, hence satisfying one criterion for implicitness. Combined with a lack of verbalizable knowledge, these experiments provide strong evidence for semantic implicit learning in language.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 37 , Special Issue 2: New Directions in the Study of Implicit and Explicit Learning , June 2015 , pp. 359 - 382
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Basnight-Brown, D. M., & Altarriba, J. (2007). Differences in semantic and translation priming across languages: The role of language direction and language dominance. Memory & Cognition, 35, 953–965.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowden, E. M., Jung-Beeman, M., Fleck, J., & Kounios, J. (2005). New approaches to demystifying insight. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 322–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, W. W., Guo, X. Y., Tang, J. H., Zhu, L., Yang, Z. L., & Dienes, Z. (2011). Unconscious structural knowledge of form-meaning connections. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1751–1760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cleeremans, A., & Jiménez, L. (2002). Implicit learning and consciousness: A graded, dynamic perspective. In French, R. M. & Cleeremans, A. (Eds.), Implicit learning and consciousness (pp. 1–40). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2002). Frequency effects in language processing: A review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 143–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firth, J. R. (1957). Modes of meaning. In Firth, J. R. (Ed.), Papers in Linguistics 1934–1951 (pp. 190–215). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hama, M., & Leow, R. P. (2010). Learning without awareness revisited. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 32, 465–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leow, R. P. (1997). Attention, awareness, and foreign language behavior. Language Learning, 47, 467–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leow, R. P. (2000). A study of the role of awareness in foreign language behavior. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 557–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leow, R. P., & Hama, M. (2013). Implicit learning in SLA and the issue of internal validity. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35, 545–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leung, J. H. C., & Williams, J. N. (2011). The implicit learning of mappings between forms and contextually derived meanings. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 33–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leung, J. H. C., & Williams, J. N. (2012). Constraints on implicit learning of grammatical form-meaning connections. Language Learning, 62, 634–662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leung, J. H. C., & Williams, J. N. (2014). Crosslinguistic differences in implicit language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36, 733–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paradis, M. (2004). A neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosa, E., & Leow, R. P. (2004). Awareness, different learning conditions, and second language development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 269–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, R. (1994). Implicit learning and the cognitive unconscious: Of artificial grammars and SLA. In Ellis, N. C. (Ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages (pp. 165–209). London, UK: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. (1995). Consciousness and foreign language learning: A tutorial on the role of attention and awareness in learning. In Schmidt, R. (Ed.), Attention and awareness in foreign language learning (pp. 1–63). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In Robinson, P. (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3–32). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, R., & Frota, S. N. (1986). Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese. In Day, R. R. (Ed.), Talking to learn: Conversation in second language acquisition (pp. 237–326): Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Shanks, D. R., & St. John, M. (1994). Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17, 367–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SuperLab (Version 4.5) [Computer software], San Pedro, CA: Cedrus Corporation.Google Scholar
Tzelgov, J. (1997). Specifying the relations between automaticity and consciousness: A theoretical note. Consciousness and Cognition, 6, 441–451.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vinter, A., & Perruchet, P. (1999). Isolating unconscious influences: The neutral parameter procedure. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Section A, 52, 857–875.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, J. N. (2004). Implicit learning of form-meaning connections. In VanPatten, B., Williams, J., Rott, S., & Overstreet, M. (Eds.), Form-meaning connections in second language acquisition (pp. 203–218). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Williams, J. N. (2005). Learning without awareness. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 269–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J. N. (2013). Attention, awareness, and noticing in language processing and learning. In Bergsleithner, J. M., Frota, S. N., & Yoshioka, J. K. (Eds.), Noticing and second language acquisition: Studies in honor of Richard Schmidt (pp. 39–57). Honolulu, HI: National Foreign Language Resource Center.Google Scholar