Information theory and artificial grammar learning: inferring grammaticality from redundancy

• Published in: Psychological research 2016-03, Vol.80 (2), p.195-211
• Main Authors: Jamieson, Randall K., Nevzorova, Uliana, Lee, Graham, Mewhort, D. J. K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Experiments; Grammar; Humans; Information Theory; Judgment - physiology; Learning - physiology; Linguistics; Models, Theoretical; Original Article; Psychological research; Psychology; Psychology Research; Transfer (Psychology) - physiology
• ISSN: 0340-0727; 1430-2772
• DOI: 10.1007/s00426-015-0660-2

In artificial grammar learning experiments, participants study strings of letters constructed using a grammar and then sort novel grammatical test exemplars from novel ungrammatical ones. The ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical strings is often taken as evidence that the participants have induced the rules of the grammar. We show that judgements of grammaticality are predicted by the local redundancy of the test strings, not by grammaticality itself. The prediction holds in a transfer test in which test strings involve different letters than the training strings. Local redundancy is usually confounded with grammaticality in stimuli widely used in the literature. The confounding explains why the ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical strings has popularized the idea that participants have induced the rules of the grammar, when they have not. We discuss the judgement of grammaticality task in terms of attribute substitution and pattern goodness. When asked to judge grammaticality (an inaccessible attribute), participants answer an easier question about pattern goodness (an accessible attribute).