Expectation Violation Leads to Generalization: The Effect of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic Structures

Giulia Bovolenta; Emma Marsden

Expectation Violation Leads to Generalization: The Effect of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic Structures

Education

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Prediction error is known to enhance priming effects for familiar syntactic structures; it also strengthens the formation of new declarative memories. Here, we investigate whether violating expectations may aid the acquisition of new abstract syntactic structures, too, by enhancing memory for individual instances which can then form the basis for abstraction. In a cross-situational artificial language learning paradigm, participants were exposed to novel syntactic structures in ways that either violated their expectations (Surprisal group) or that conformed to them (Control group). Results from a delayed post-test show that participants in the Surprisal group developed stronger representations of the structures’ form-meaning mappings and were better able to generalize them to new instances, relative to the Control group.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Pages	875-881
Number of pages	7
Volume	43
Publication status	Published - Nov 2021
Event	43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds, CogSci 2021 - Virtual, Online, Austria Duration: 26 Jul 2021 → 29 Jul 2021

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Volume	43
ISSN (Electronic)	1069-7977

Conference

Conference	43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds, CogSci 2021
Country/Territory	Austria
City	Virtual, Online
Period	26/07/21 → 29/07/21

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Cognitive Science Society: Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds, CogSci 2021.All rights reserved.

Keywords

artificial language learning
cross-situational learning
language acquisition
prediction error
syntax

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Bovolenta and Marsden 2021 - Expectation Violation Leads to Generalizati ... ct of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic StructuresFinal published version, 726 KBLicence: CC BY

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j62f7hv

Cite this

Bovolenta, G., & Marsden, E. (2021). Expectation Violation Leads to Generalization: The Effect of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic Structures. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 43, pp. 875-881). (Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society; Vol. 43). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j62f7hv

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title = "Expectation Violation Leads to Generalization: The Effect of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic Structures",

abstract = "Prediction error is known to enhance priming effects for familiar syntactic structures; it also strengthens the formation of new declarative memories. Here, we investigate whether violating expectations may aid the acquisition of new abstract syntactic structures, too, by enhancing memory for individual instances which can then form the basis for abstraction. In a cross-situational artificial language learning paradigm, participants were exposed to novel syntactic structures in ways that either violated their expectations (Surprisal group) or that conformed to them (Control group). Results from a delayed post-test show that participants in the Surprisal group developed stronger representations of the structures{\textquoteright} form-meaning mappings and were better able to generalize them to new instances, relative to the Control group.",

keywords = "artificial language learning, cross-situational learning, language acquisition, prediction error, syntax",

author = "Giulia Bovolenta and Emma Marsden",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Cognitive Science Society: Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds, CogSci 2021.All rights reserved.; 43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds, CogSci 2021 ; Conference date: 26-07-2021 Through 29-07-2021",

year = "2021",

month = nov,

language = "English",

isbn = "9781713835257",

volume = "43",

series = "Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society",

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Bovolenta, G & Marsden, E 2021, Expectation Violation Leads to Generalization: The Effect of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic Structures. in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. vol. 43, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, vol. 43, pp. 875-881, 43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Comparative Cognition: Animal Minds, CogSci 2021, Virtual, Online, Austria, 26/07/21. <https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j62f7hv>

Expectation Violation Leads to Generalization: The Effect of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic Structures. / Bovolenta, Giulia ; Marsden, Emma.
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Vol. 43 2021. p. 875-881 (Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society; Vol. 43).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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N2 - Prediction error is known to enhance priming effects for familiar syntactic structures; it also strengthens the formation of new declarative memories. Here, we investigate whether violating expectations may aid the acquisition of new abstract syntactic structures, too, by enhancing memory for individual instances which can then form the basis for abstraction. In a cross-situational artificial language learning paradigm, participants were exposed to novel syntactic structures in ways that either violated their expectations (Surprisal group) or that conformed to them (Control group). Results from a delayed post-test show that participants in the Surprisal group developed stronger representations of the structures’ form-meaning mappings and were better able to generalize them to new instances, relative to the Control group.

AB - Prediction error is known to enhance priming effects for familiar syntactic structures; it also strengthens the formation of new declarative memories. Here, we investigate whether violating expectations may aid the acquisition of new abstract syntactic structures, too, by enhancing memory for individual instances which can then form the basis for abstraction. In a cross-situational artificial language learning paradigm, participants were exposed to novel syntactic structures in ways that either violated their expectations (Surprisal group) or that conformed to them (Control group). Results from a delayed post-test show that participants in the Surprisal group developed stronger representations of the structures’ form-meaning mappings and were better able to generalize them to new instances, relative to the Control group.

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KW - cross-situational learning

KW - language acquisition

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Expectation Violation Leads to Generalization: The Effect of Prediction Error on the Acquisition of New Syntactic Structures

Abstract

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Conference

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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