The effect of cue length and position on noticing and learning of determiner agreement pairings: Evidence from a cue-balanced artificial vocabulary learning task

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Daniel R. Walter, Emory University; Galya Fischer, Emory University; Janelle Cai, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2024
• Publisher: PLoS
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2024 Walter et al
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0302355
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: PLoS One
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 7
• Start Page: e0302355
• Grant/Funding Information: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
• Keywords: reliability; language learning; frequency; acquisition; competition; first language (L1); cues; second/additional language (L2/A)
• Research Categories: Language, General; Language, Linguistics

Abstract

The importance of cues in language learning has long been established and it is clear that cues are an essential part of both first language (L1) and second/additional language (L2/A) acquisition. The effects of cue reliability and frequency, along with the competition between cues have been shown to significantly impact learners’ pace of acquisition of these language-specific patterns. However, natural languages do not allow for a clear picture of how the forms of cues themselves affect their perception, uptake, and generalizability. In this study, we developed an artificial vocabulary consisting of determiners and nouns. Within these nouns, completely reliable cues were developed and equally distributed as long and short cues over three possible positions: beginning, middle, or end. Through a word-pair learning study, we show that length and position of cues variably affects agreement accuracy, and that noticing of cues during training is less important for known words, and more important for novel ones when deciding on inter-word gender-like agreement.