Learning simple and complex artificial grammars in the presence of a semantic reference field: effects on performance and awareness.

ABSTRACT: This study investigated whether the negative effect of complexity on artificial grammar learning could be compensated by adding semantics. Participants were exposed to exemplars from a simple or a complex finite state grammar presented with or without a semantic reference field. As expected, performance on a grammaticality judgment test was higher for the simple grammar than for the complex grammar. For the simple grammar, the results also showed that participants presented with a reference field and instructed to decode the meaning of each exemplar (decoding condition) did better than participants who memorized the exemplars without semantic referents (memorize condition). Contrary to expectations, however, there was no significant difference between the decoding condition and the memoriz

SUBMITTER: Van den Bos E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4333800 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature