ERIC Number: EJ1459313
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Nov
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0272-2631
EISSN: EISSN-1470-1545
Available Date: N/A
Learning without Awareness Revisited and Reconsidered: A Conceptual Replication and Extension
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, v46 n4 p1231-1257 2024
Is it possible to acquire a sensitivity to a regularity in language without intending to and without awareness of what it is? In this conceptual replication and extension of an earlier study (Williams, 2005) participants were trained on a semiartificial language in which determiner choice was dependent on noun animacy. Participants who did not report awareness or recognition of this rule were nevertheless above chance at selecting the correct determiner in novel contexts. However, further analyses based on trial-by-trial subjective judgments and item similarity statistics were consistent with the possibility that responses were based on conscious feelings of familiarity or analogy to trained items rather than unconscious knowledge of a semantic generalization. The results are discussed in terms of instance-based approaches to memory and language, and the implications for the concept of "learning without awareness" are considered.
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Artificial Languages, Intuition, Nouns, Word Recognition, Language Processing, Familiarity, Context Effect, Priming, Stimulus Generalization, Retention (Psychology)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
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Author Affiliations: N/A