Statistical learning of novel graphotactic constraints in children and adults

The current study explored statistical learning processes in the acquisition of orthographic knowledge in school-aged children and skilled adults. Learning of novel graphotactic constraints on the position and context of letter distributions was induced by means of a two-phase learning task adapted from Onishi, Chambers, and Fisher (Cognition, 83 (2002) B13�B23). Following incidental exposure to pattern-embedding stimuli in Phase 1, participants� learning generalization was tested in Phase 2 with legality judgments about novel conforming/nonconforming word-like strings. Test phase performance was above chance, suggesting that both types of constraints were reliably learned even after relatively brief exposure. As hypothesized, signal detection theory d� analyses confirmed that learning permissible letter positions (d� = 0.97) was easier than permissible neighboring letter contexts (d� = 0.19). Adults were more accurate than children in all but a strict analysis of the contextual constraints condition. Consistent with the statistical learning perspective in literacy, our results suggest that statistical learning mechanisms contribute to children�s and adults� acquisition of knowledge about graphotactic constraints similar to those existing in their orthography