Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Lidcombe, Sydney, New South Wales 1825, Australia.
Cogn Sci. 2012 Mar;36(2):286-304. doi: 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01200.x. Epub 2011 Oct 4.
There is little empirical evidence showing a direct link between a capacity for statistical learning (SL) and proficiency with natural language. Moreover, discussion of the role of SL in language acquisition has seldom focused on literacy development. Our study addressed these issues by investigating the relationship between SL and reading ability in typically developing children and healthy adults. We tested SL using visually presented stimuli within a triplet learning paradigm and examined reading ability by administering the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT-4; Wilkinson & Robertson, 2006). A total of 38 typically developing children (mean age of 9;5 years, range 6;4-12;5) and 37 healthy adults (mean age of 21 years, range 18-34) were assessed. In children, SL was significantly related to reading ability. Importantly, this relationship was independent of grade and also age. The adult data, too, revealed that SL was significantly related to reading ability. A regression analysis of the combined child and adult data revealed that SL accounted for a unique amount of variance in reading ability, after age and attention had been taken into consideration. For the first time, this study provides empirical evidence that a capacity for more effective SL is related to higher reading ability in the general population.
几乎没有经验证据表明统计学习（SL）能力与自然语言熟练程度之间存在直接联系。此外，关于 SL 在语言习得中的作用的讨论很少关注读写能力的发展。我们通过研究典型发展儿童和健康成年人的 SL 与阅读能力之间的关系来解决这些问题。我们在三胞胎学习范式中使用视觉呈现的刺激来测试 SL，并通过进行广泛的成就测试（WRAT-4；Wilkinson 和 Robertson，2006）来检查阅读能力。共有 38 名典型发展的儿童（平均年龄为 9 岁 5 个月，范围为 6 岁 4-12 岁 5）和 37 名健康成年人（平均年龄为 21 岁，范围为 18-34 岁）接受了评估。在儿童中，SL 与阅读能力显著相关。重要的是，这种关系独立于年级，也独立于年龄。成人数据也表明，SL 与阅读能力显著相关。对儿童和成人综合数据的回归分析表明，在考虑年龄和注意力后，SL 解释了阅读能力的独特差异。这项研究首次提供了经验证据，表明更有效的 SL 能力与普通人群中更高的阅读能力有关。
