TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid phonotactic constraint learning in ageing
T2 - evidence from speech errors
AU - Muylle, Merel
AU - Smalle, Eleonore H.M.
AU - Hartsuiker, Robert J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Older adults are able to implicitly pick up structural regularities in the environment despite declining cognitive abilities. Here, we investigated elderly’s abilities to implicitly pick up novel linguistic constraints in speech production. Across four training days, young and healthy older Dutch-speaking adults were asked to rapidly recite Dutch phonotactic syllables. Two unrestricted consonants were experimentally constrained to onset or coda positions depending on the medial vowel. Analysis of speech errors revealed rapid adherence to the novel second-order constraints in both the younger and the older group. However, in the older group, there was weaker trial-specific learning compared to the younger group, potentially due to explicit memory deficits. Strikingly, the error pattern of the elderly mirrors earlier developmental work with children using the same paradigm. The findings are discussed in light of possible age-dependent differences in implicit and explicit cognitive subsystems underlying human skill learning.
AB - Older adults are able to implicitly pick up structural regularities in the environment despite declining cognitive abilities. Here, we investigated elderly’s abilities to implicitly pick up novel linguistic constraints in speech production. Across four training days, young and healthy older Dutch-speaking adults were asked to rapidly recite Dutch phonotactic syllables. Two unrestricted consonants were experimentally constrained to onset or coda positions depending on the medial vowel. Analysis of speech errors revealed rapid adherence to the novel second-order constraints in both the younger and the older group. However, in the older group, there was weaker trial-specific learning compared to the younger group, potentially due to explicit memory deficits. Strikingly, the error pattern of the elderly mirrors earlier developmental work with children using the same paradigm. The findings are discussed in light of possible age-dependent differences in implicit and explicit cognitive subsystems underlying human skill learning.
KW - Ageing
KW - implicit learning
KW - phonotactic constraints
KW - speech errors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108770275&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/23273798.2021.1897149
DO - 10.1080/23273798.2021.1897149
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108770275
SN - 2327-3798
VL - 36
SP - 746
EP - 757
JO - Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
JF - Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
IS - 6
ER -