Statistical learning refers to the ability to extract statistical or probabilistic knowledge from a large body of information. While this concept has long been known in psychology, its possible importance in relation to how humans acquire linguistic skills first became apparent when Saffran, Aslin, & Newport (1996) reported that 8-month-old infants were able to learn the statistical relationship present in a stream of nonsense syllables presented as simulated speech. Since then, statistical learning has also been shown to occur with visual stimuli (Fiser & Aslin, 2001), and this learning may occur at an unconscious level. Seidenberg (1997) suggested that statistical learning may explain how children learn the grammar of language, and therefore provide an alternative to the innateness hypothesis of language. In particular, visual statistical learning (VSL) may play a role when it comes to learning to read, and could perhaps be a form of non-linguistic skill, which, along with linguistic based knowledge, such as phonology, morphology and explicit orthographic knowledge, underpins the processes of reading aloud and comprehension. To date, VSL has been shown to occur in both adults and infants (Fiser & Aslin, 2002a; 2002b). This paper reports on a project we are currently conducting designed to test the VSL abilities of primary school children. If such learning is found, the ultimate goal is to ascertain how VSL skills are linked to reading and comprehension, and to develop a VSL test that can be used as part of a battery of tests to assess linguistic capabilities in children.

Authors: Ian Simpson and Joanne Arciuli

Event: SF08: Speed Papers

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