Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia.
Neurosci Lett. 2012 May 31;517(2):133-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.04.045. Epub 2012 Apr 25.
Implicit detection of statistical regularities is thought to be a ubiquitous facet of cognition; yet, we know little about statistical learning (SL) over time. A recent study showed that visual SL can be observed at 24 h post stimulus (Kim et al., 2009 [14]). Here we sought to obtain a finer-grained picture of visual SL over time. We employed an embedded triplet paradigm and delayed presentation of the surprise test phase, in relation to the initial familiarisation phase, across five time periods: 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h and 24 h. Results revealed a significant degree of SL at each delay period. Moreover, the degree of SL was consistent across the five delay periods. These results suggest that visual SL is remarkably consistent over time. It does not appear to be fragile and does not appear to be enhanced by sleep in healthy adults. This robustness is desirable in a mechanism thought to underpin a broad range of mental activities including language processing. Future research might use the methodology we report here to examine whether similarly stable levels of SL can be observed in individuals with language impairment, such as those with SLI and dyslexia, compared with typical peers.
内隐检测统计规律被认为是认知的普遍特征；然而，我们对随时间推移的统计学习（SL）知之甚少。最近的一项研究表明，视觉 SL 可以在刺激后 24 小时观察到（Kim 等人，2009 [14]）。在这里，我们试图更详细地了解随时间推移的视觉 SL。我们采用了嵌入式三联体范式，并在初始熟悉阶段之后，在五个时间点：30 分钟、1 小时、2 小时、4 小时和 24 小时，延迟呈现惊喜测试阶段。结果表明，在每个延迟期都存在显著程度的 SL。此外，SL 的程度在五个延迟期内是一致的。这些结果表明，视觉 SL 随时间非常稳定。它似乎并不脆弱，也不会因健康成年人的睡眠而增强。这种稳健性在被认为是支撑包括语言处理在内的广泛心理活动的机制中是可取的。未来的研究可能会使用我们在这里报告的方法来检查在语言障碍个体（如 SLI 和阅读障碍）与典型同龄人相比，是否可以观察到类似稳定水平的 SL。
