THE IMPACT OF ADDITIONAL TIME AND PRODUCTION BETWEEN STIMULI ON ADULT LANGUAGE LEARNING

Abstract

This study followed up on a previous experiment, wherein adults were unable to learn a particular type of language sound rule (a Type II phonological rule), which infants were readily able to learn. As in the earlier study, adults participated in a familiarization phase, where they heard nonsense words that followed the rule in question, and a test phase where they had to judge new nonsense words as to whether they fit or did not fit the pattern of the familiarization words. Two factors that might improve learning were part of the familiarization phase of the current experiment (1) addition of time between familiarization words, (2) plus vocal production of each familiarization word. Twenty-five total adults participated, but the results did not indicate any improvement in the participants’ ability to learn the Type II phonological rule based on the manipulated factors. Possible reasons for differences between infant and adult language learning are discussed.