Fluency Expresses Implicit Knowledge of Tonal Symmetry.

ABSTRACT: The purposes of the present study were twofold. First, we sought to establish whether tonal symmetry produces processing fluency. Second, we sought to explore whether symmetry and chunk strength express themselves differently in fluency, as an indication of different mechanisms being involved for sub- and supra-finite state processing. Across two experiments, participants were asked to listen to and memorize artificial poetry showing a mirror symmetry (an inversion, i.e., a type of cross serial dependency); after this training phase, people completed a four-choice RT task in which they were presented with new artificial poetry. Participants were required to identify the stimulus displayed. We found that symmetry sped up responding to the second half of strings, indicating a fluency effect.

SUBMITTER: Ling X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4737865 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature