Humans learn the rules that govern how the elements of their language are organized over an input that is often not homogeneous (it might contain noise, or even include rules from different linguistic systems, as it might be the case for bilinguals). In the present study we explore the conditions under which participants can learn an abstract rule when it is presented in a heterogeneous context. Results from six experiments show that listeners can learn a token-independent rule even if it is presented together with some exemplars that implement a different regularity (Experiment 1a and 1b).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuropsychologia
August 2018
Consonant musical intervals tend to be more readily processed than dissonant intervals. In the present study, we explore the neural basis for this difference by registering how the brain responds after changes in consonance and dissonance, and how formal musical training modulates these responses. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were registered while participants were presented with sequences of consonant intervals interrupted by a dissonant interval, or sequences of dissonant intervals interrupted by a consonant interval.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe extraction of abstract structures from speech (or from gestures in the case of sign languages) has been claimed to be a fundamental mechanism for language acquisition. In the present study we registered the neural responses that are triggered when a violation of an abstract, token-independent rule is detected. We registered ERPs while presenting participants with trisyllabic CVCVCV nonsense words in an oddball paradigm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Consonant-Vowel hypothesis suggests that consonants and vowels tend to be used differently during language processing. In this study we explored whether these functional differences trigger different neural responses in a rule learning task. We recorded ERPs while nonsense words were presented in an Oddball paradigm.
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