Behavioural Science Institute.
School of Psychology.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2022 Aug;48(8):1219-1234. doi: 10.1037/xlm0001123. Epub 2022 Apr 7.
Implicit learning theories suggest that we update syntactic knowledge based on prior experience (e.g., Chang et al., 2006). To determine the limits of the extent to which implicit learning can influence syntactic processing, we investigated whether structural priming effects persist up to 1 month postexposure, and whether they persist less long in healthy older (compared to younger) adults. We conducted a longitudinal experiment with three sessions: Session A, Session B (1 week after A), and Session C (4 weeks after B). For young adults, we found passive priming effects to persist and accumulate across sessions (1 week and 4 weeks). However, for older adults the effects persisted for 1 week but not 4. This suggests that for young adults, who unlike older adults experience no age-related decline in implicit memory, the limit to the duration of structural priming persistence is longer than 4 weeks. In a second longitudinal experiment with two sessions 1 week apart we found that priming in Session A affected syntactic processing in a different, independent task in Session B, both for young and older adults. Experiment 2 suggests that implicit persistence of the learned syntax is not limited to a specific context or task. Together, our findings give insight into how structural priming can contribute to language change throughout the life span, showing that implicit learning is a pervasive and robust mechanism that contributes to syntactic processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
内隐学习理论表明，我们会根据先前的经验（例如，Chang 等人，2006 年）更新语法知识。为了确定内隐学习在多大程度上可以影响语法处理，我们研究了结构启动效应是否会在暴露后持续长达 1 个月，以及在健康的老年人（与年轻人相比）中是否持续时间更短。我们进行了一项具有三个阶段的纵向实验：A 阶段、B 阶段（A 阶段后 1 周）和 C 阶段（B 阶段后 4 周）。对于年轻成年人，我们发现被动启动效应在各个阶段（1 周和 4 周）都持续存在并积累。然而，对于老年人，这种效应只持续了 1 周，而不是 4 周。这表明，对于不像老年人那样在内隐记忆方面经历年龄相关下降的年轻成年人来说，结构启动持续时间的限制超过 4 周。在第二个具有两个相隔 1 周的阶段的纵向实验中，我们发现 A 阶段的启动会影响年轻成年人和老年人在 B 阶段的不同、独立任务中的语法处理。实验 2 表明，所学到的语法的内隐持续时间不限于特定的上下文或任务。总的来说，我们的研究结果深入了解了结构启动如何在整个生命周期中促进语言变化，表明内隐学习是一种普遍而强大的机制，有助于语法处理。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2022 APA，保留所有权利）。
