Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-68cz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-09T04:37:45.344Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cognitive Factors in Learning about Structured Sequences

Applications to Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Thomas H. Carr  and
Tim Curran
Thomas H. Carr
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Tim Curran
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Cognitive science has developed a number of experimental techniques for studying how people learn about sequentially structured stimulus material. We describe these techniques, review findings they have produced, and discuss the findings' relevance for understanding the mastery of syntax during second language learning. Three issues are addressed: (a) the nature or content of what is learned and how it might be represented in the language learner's knowledge base, paying special heed to acquiring abstract rules versus generalizing across stored examples, (b) the role of conscious awareness in syntactic learning, and (c) the role of limited-capacity processing or focal attention in syntactic learning. Care is taken to distinguish between the latter two factors—Focal attention to the task of learning about syntax and conscious awareness of particular syntactic structures are not the same thing and may well play different roles in successful acquisition.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 205 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Allport, A. (1989). Visual attention. In Posner, M. I. (Ed.), Foundations of cognitive science (pp. 631–682). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. R. (1982). Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psychological Review, 89, 369–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. R. (1983). The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. R. (1992). Automaticity and the ACT* theory. American Journal of Psychology, 105, 165–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. New York: Oxford University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Berry, D. C. (in press). Implicit learning. In Umilta, C. & Moscovitch, M. (Eds.), Attention and performance XV: Conscious and nonconscious information processing. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Besner, D., Twilley, L., McCann, R. S., & Seergobin, K. (1990). On the association between connectionism and data: Are a few words necessary? Psychological Review, 97, 432–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, W. F. (1974). There is no convincing evidence for operant or classical conditioning in adult humans. In Weimer, W. B. & Palermo, D. S. (Eds.), Cognition and the symbolic processes (pp. 1–42). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Brooks, L. R., & Vokey, J. R. (1991). Abstract analogies and abstracted grammars: Comments on Reber (1989) and Mathews et al. (1989). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 120, 316–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. S., & Carr, T. H. (1993). Limits on perceptual abstraction in reading: Asymmetric transfer between surface forms differing in typicality. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 1277–1296.Google Scholar
Bruck, M., & Waters, G. A. (1990). An analysis of the component spelling and reading skills of good readers-good spellers, good readers-poor spellers, and poor readers-poor spellers. In Carr, T. H. & Levy, B. A. (Eds.), Reading and its development: Component skills approaches (pp. 161–206). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bullemer, P. T., & Nissen, M. J. (1990). On the relationship between attention and memory systems: The nature of expectancies underlying the expression of skill. Unpublished manuscript, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Carr, T. H. (1979). Consciousness in models of human information processing: Primary memory, executive control, and input regulation. In Underwood, G. & Stevens, R. (Eds.), Aspects of consciousness: Vol. 1. Psychological issues (pp. 123–154). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Carr, T. H. (1992). Automaticity and cognitive anatomy: Is word recognition “automatic”? American Journal of Psychology, 105, 201–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carr, T. H., Brown, J. S., & Charalambous, A. (1989). Repetition and reading: Perceptual encoding mechanisms are very abstract but not very interactive. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 763–778.Google Scholar
Cheesman, J., & Merikle, P. M. (1985). Word recognition and consciousness. In Besner, D., Waller, T. G., & MacKinnon, G. E. (Eds.), Reading research: Advances in theory and practice (Vol. 5, pp. 311–352). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleeremans, A. (1993). Attention and awareness in sequence learning. In Proceedings of the 15th annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cleeremans, A., & McClelland, J. L. (1991). Learning the structure of event sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 120, 235–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, A., & Curran, T. (1993). On tasks, knowledge, correlations, and dissociations: A comment on Perruchet & Amorim (1992). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 1431–1437.Google Scholar
Cohen, A., Ivry, R. I., & Keele, S. W. (1990). Attention and structure in sequence learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 17–30.Google Scholar
Curran, T., & Keele, S. W. (1993). Attentional and nonattentional forms of sequence learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 189–202.Google Scholar
Dagenbach, D., Carr, T. H., & Wilhelmsen, A. (1989). Take-induced strategies and near-threshold priming: Conscious influences on unconscious perception. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 412–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dell, G. S., & O'Seaghdha, P. G. (1994). Inhibition in interactive activation models of linguistic selection and sequencing. In Dagenbach, D. & Carr, T. H. (Eds.), Inhibitory processes in attention, memory, and language (pp. 409–453). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dienes, Z., Broadbent, D., & Berry, D. (1991). Implicit and explicit knowledge bases in artificial grammar learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 17, 875–887.Google ScholarPubMed
Dulany, D. E., Carlson, R. A., & Dewey, G. I. (1984). A case of syntactical learning and judgment: How conscious and how abstract? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 541–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eberhard, K. M. (1994). Phonological inhibition in speech perception. In Dagenbach, D. & Carr, T. H. (Eds.), Inhibitory processes in attention, memory, and language (pp. 383–407). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Elman, J. L. (1990). Finding structure in time. Cognitive Science, 14, 179–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elman, J. L. (1991, 04). Incremental learning and the projection problem: The importance of starting small. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Fitts, P. M., & Posner, M. I. (1967). Human performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Gerken, L., & Mclntosh, B. J. (1993). Interplay of function morphemes and prosody in early language. Developmental Psychology, 29, 448–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, N. A., & Broadbent, D. E. (1988). Two modes of learning for interactive tasks. Cognition, 28, 249–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haynes, M., & Carr, T. H. (1990). Writing system background and second language reading: A component skills analysis of English reading by native speaker-readers of Chinese. In Carr, T. H. & Levy, B. A. (Eds.), Reading and its development: Component skills approaches (pp. 375–421). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hintzman, D. L. (1986). “Schema abstraction” in a multiple-trace memory model. Psychological Review, 93, 411–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsh-Pasek, K., Kemler, Nelson D. G., Jusczyk, P. K., Wright, K., & Druss, B. (1987). Clauses are perceptual units for prelinguistic infants. Cognition, 26, 269–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holender, D. (1986). Semantic activation without conscious identification in dichotic listening, parafoveal vision, and visual masking: A survey and appraisal. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 9, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houghton, G. (1990). The problem of serial order: A neural network modal of sequence learning and recall. In Dale, R., Mellish, C., & Zock, M. (Eds.), Current research in natural language generation (pp. 287–319). London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Jacoby, L. L., & Brooks, L. R. (1984). Nonanalytic cognition: Memory, perception, and concept learning. In Bower, G. H. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 18). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
James, W. (1890). Principles of psychology. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Jusczyk, P. K., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Kemler, Nelson D. G., Kennedy, L., Woodward, A., & Piwoz, J. (1992). Perception of acoustic correlates of major phrasal units by young infants. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 252–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahneman, D. (1973). Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D., & Miller, D. T. (1986). Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review, 93, 136–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keele, S. W., & Jennings, P. J. (1992). Attention in the representation of sequence: Experiment and theory. Human Movement Studies, 11, 125–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keele, S. W., & Summers, J. J. (1976). The structure of motor programs. In Stelmach, G. E. (Eds.), Motor control: Issues and trends. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kihlstrom, J. F. (1987). The cognitive unconscious. Science, 238, 1445–1452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowlton, B. J., Ramus, S. J., & Squire, L. R. (1992). Intact artificial grammar learning in amnesia: Dissociation of classification learning and explicit memory for specific instances. Psychological Science, 3, 172–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowlton, B. J., & Squire, L. R. (in press). The information acquired during artificial grammar learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.Google Scholar
Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Fairview Park, OH: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Long, M. H. (1991). An introduction to second language acquisition research. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Lewicki, P. (1986). Processing information about covariations that cannot be articulated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 12, 135–146.Google Scholar
Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95, 492–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, G. D. (1990). Repetition priming and automaticity: Common underlying mechanisms? Cognitive Psychology, 22, 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcel, A. J. (1983). Conscious and unconscious perception: Experiments on visual masking and word recognition. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 197–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathews, R. C. (1991). The forgetting algorithm: How fragmentary knowledge of exemplars can abstract knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 120, 117–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathews, R. C., Buss, R. R., Stanley, W. B., Blanchard-Fields, F., Cho, J. R., & Druhan, B. (1989). Role of implicit and explicit processes in learning from examples: A synergistic effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 1083–1100.Google Scholar
Mayes, A. R. (1988). Human organic memory disorders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAndrews, M. P., & Moscovitch, M. (1985). Rule-based and exemplar-based classification in artificial grammar learning. Memory and Cognition, 13, 469–475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munsell, P., & Carr, T. H. (1981). Monitoring the Monitor: A review of Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Language Learning, 31, 493–502.Google Scholar
Navon, D., Miller, D. (1987). Role of outcome conflict in dual-task interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 13, 435–448.Google ScholarPubMed
Nissen, M. J., & Bullemer, P. (1987). Attentional requirements of learning: Evidence from performance measures. Cognitive Psychology, 19, 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nissen, M. J., Knopman, D. S., & Schacter, D. L. (1987). Neurochemical dissociation of memory systems. Neurology, 37, 789–794.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oden, G. C. (1987). Concepts, knowledge, and thought. Annual Review of Psychology, 38, 203–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, R., Wise, B., Connors, F., & Rack, J. (1990). Organization, heritability, and remediation of component word recognition and language skills in disabled readers. In Carr, T. H. & Levy, B. A. (Eds.), Reading and its development: Component skills approaches (pp. 261–322). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Amorim, M. (1992). Conscious knowledge and changes in performance in sequence learning: Evidence against dissociation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 785–800.Google ScholarPubMed
Perruchet, P., & Pacteau, C. (1990). Synthetic grammar learning: Implicit rule abstraction or explicit fragmentary knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 119, 264–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Pacteau, C. (1991). Implicit acquisition of abstract knowledge about artifical grammar: Some methodological and conceptual issues. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 120, 112–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posner, M. I. (1986). Chronometric explorations of mind (2nd Ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & Peterson, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reber, A. S. (1967). Implicit learning of artificial grammars. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 77, 317–327.Google Scholar
Reber, A. S. (1969). Transfer of syntactic structure in synthetic languages. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 81, 115–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reber, A. S. (1989). Implicit learning and tacit knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 118, 219–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reber, A. S., Allen, R., & Regan, S. (1985). Syntactical learning and judgment, still unconscious and still abstract: A comment on Dulany, Carlson, and Dewey. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114, 17–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reber, A. S., & Lewis, S. (1977). Toward a theory of implicit learning: The analysis of form and structure of a body of tacit knowledge. Cognition, 5, 333–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schacter, D. L. (1987). Implicit memory: History and current status. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13, 501–518.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11, 127–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, R. (1993). Awareness and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 206–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidenberg, M. S., & McClelland, J. L. (1989). A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. Psychological Review, 96, 523–568.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Selinker, (1972). Interlanguage. IRAL, 10, 209–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Servan-Schreiber, E., & Anderson, J. R. (1990). Learning artificial grammars with competitive chunking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 592–608.Google Scholar
Smith, E. E. (1989). Concepts and categories. In Posner, M. I. (Ed.), Foundations of cognitive science (pp. 501–526). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, L. R. (1992). Memory and the hippocampus: A synthesis of findings with rats, monkeys, and humans. Psychological Review, 99, 195–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Srull, T. K., & Wyer, R. S. (Eds.). (1990). Advances in social cognition: Vol. 3. Content and process specificity in the effects of prior experiences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Vokey, J. R., & Brooks, L. R. (1992). Salience of item knowledge in learning artificial grammars. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 328–344.Google Scholar
Whittlesea, B. W. A., & Dorken, M. D. (1993). Incidentally, things in general are particularly determined: An episode-processing account of implicit learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 12, 227–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willingham, D. B., Greenley, D. B., & Bardona, A. M. (1993). Dissociation in a serial reaction time task using a recognition measure: Reply to Perruchet amd Amorim (1992). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 1424–1430.Google Scholar
Willingham, D. B., Nissen, M. J., & Bullemer, P. (1989). On the development of procedural knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 1047–1060.Google ScholarPubMed