Improved statistical learning abilities in adult bilinguals

• Main Authors: Onnis, Luca, Chun, Win Ee, Lou-Magnuson, Matthew
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Artificial grammar learning; Bilingualism
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/85487; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/43937
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Using multiple languages may confer distinct advantages in cognitive control, yet it is unclear whether bilingualism is associated with better implicit statistical learning, a core cognitive ability underlying language. We tested bilingual adults on a challenging task requiring simultaneous learning of two miniature grammars characterized by different statistics. We found that participants learned each grammar significantly better than chance and both grammars equally well. Crucially, a validated continuous measure of bilingual dominance predicted accuracy scores for both artificial grammars in a generalized linear model. The study thus demonstrates the first graded advantage in learning novel statistical relations in adult bilinguals.