Explicit and implicit learning of verb bias using reversal learning

Tran, Chi T.; Kelley, Amanda C.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/99994 Copy

Description

Title

Explicit and implicit learning of verb bias using reversal learning

Author(s)

• Tran, Chi T.
• Kelley, Amanda C.

Contributor(s)

Dell, Gary S.

Issue Date

2018-04

Keyword(s)

• Psychology
• Verb bias
• reversal learning
• category learning
• implicit learning
• explicit learning

Abstract

Verb bias is a tendency for a verb to occur in a particular sentence structure, rather than other structures. Verb bias can influence the speaker’s choice in language production, and in the lab context, verb bias can be changed (learned) by associating a verb with only one of its possible structures. In our study, we are interested to see whether people learn a new verb bias implicitly or explicitly when the training process involves learning to categorize sentences as grammatical or not grammatical, and feedback is given. Furthermore, our current study is using the concept of reversal learning to determine whether the learning is explicit or implicit. If the learning is implicit, learning the reversed rule should be slow; on the other hand, if learning is explicit, learning the reversed rule should be fast. Because we are using feedback to train new verb bias explicitly, we expect the learning to be explicit. By using reversal learning in the study, we can validate the idea that implicit learning depicts a slow-reversal, whereas explicit learning indicates a fast-reversal. We found that only a few participants were able to learn the new verb bias, but several subjects who did learn the verb bias had fast-reversal. This demonstrates for these subjects that learning new verb biases by categorizing sentences with feedback is associated with explicit learning. However, it is like that more realistic learning of verb bias, which is by just understanding and producing sentences, is implicit.

Type of Resource

image

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99994

Copyright and License Information

• Copyright 2018 Chi T. Tran
• Copyright 2018 Amanda C. Kelley

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