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1. Effect of similarity and training experiences on new vocabulary learning

   Waller, M; Yurovsky, D; Nozari, N (June 2024, Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.)

   Samuelson, L K; Frank, S; Toneva, M; Mackey, A; Hazeltine, E (Ed.)

   In two experiments (N = 179), we studied the effect of contextual similarity and training mode on new vocabulary learning. Adult participants were trained on blocks of items that were semantically similar, phonologically similar, or unrelated to one another. Each participant was trained through passive exposure, active comprehension, or active production of the new vocabulary. Exp 1 trained items in clusters of 9, whereas Exp 2 trained the same number of items in clusters of 3. Exp 2 also assessed delayed retention 48-72 hours after training. Results showed a robust and negative impact of semantic similarity and production mode on vocabulary learning. A detrimental effect of phonological similarity was only observed in the delayed test. These results suggest that adding the challenge of resolving similarity-induced competition and articulating the word-form negatively impacts the quick acquisition of new vocabulary. 

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2. Benefits of Testing and Production for Learning Turkish As a New Language

   https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12602  

   Rose, Maya C.; Brooks, Patricia J.; Lodhi, Arshia K.; Cortez, Angela (July 2023, Language Learning)

   Abstract This study examined putative benefits of testing and production for learning new languages. Undergraduates (N= 156) were exposed to Turkish spoken dialogues under varying learning conditions (retrieval practice, comprehension, verbal repetition) in a computer‐assisted language learning session. Participants completed pre‐ and posttests of number‐ and case‐marking comprehension, a vocabulary test, and an explicit awareness questionnaire. Controlling for nonverbal ability and pretest scores, the retrieval‐practice group performed highest overall. For number/case marking, the comprehension and retrieval‐practice groups outperformed the verbal‐repetition group, suggesting benefits of either recognition‐ or recall‐based testing. For vocabulary, the verbal‐repetition and retrieval‐practice groups outperformed the comprehension group, indicating benefits of overt production. Case marking was easier to learn than number marking, suggesting advantages for learning word‐final inflections. Explicit awareness correlated with comprehension accuracy, yet some participants demonstrated above‐chance comprehension without showing awareness. Findings indicate the value of incorporating both practice tests and overt production in language pedagogy. 

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3. Examining the Relationship Between Multiple Tests of Receptive Vocabulary

   https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00617  

   Harel, Daphna; Goudelias, Deanna; Cheng, Hung-Shao; Baese-Berk, Melissa M; Theodore, Rachel M; Levi, Susannah V (February 2024, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research)

   Purpose:Numerous tasks have been developed to measure receptive vocabulary, many of which were designed to be administered in person with a trained researcher or clinician. The purpose of the current study is to compare a common, in-person test of vocabulary with other vocabulary assessments that can be self-administered. Method:Fifty-three participants completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) via online video call to mimic in-person administration, as well as four additional fully automated, self-administered measures of receptive vocabulary. Participants also completed three control tasks that do not measure receptive vocabulary. Results:Pearson correlations indicated moderate correlations among most of the receptive vocabulary measures (approximatelyr= .50–.70). As expected, the control tasks revealed only weak correlations to the vocabulary measures. However, subsets of items of the four self-administered measures of receptive vocabulary achieved high correlations with the PPVT (r> .80). These subsets were found through a repeated resampling approach. Conclusions:Measures of receptive vocabulary differ in which items are included and in the assessment task (e.g., lexical decision, picture matching, synonym matching). The results of the current study suggest that several self-administered tasks are able to achieve high correlations with the PPVT when a subset of items are scored, rather than the full set of items. These data provide evidence that subsets of items on one behavioral assessment can more highly correlate to another measure. In practical terms, these data demonstrate that self-administered, automated measures of receptive vocabulary can be used as reasonable substitutes of at least one test (PPVT) that requires human interaction. That several of the fully automated measures resulted in high correlations with the PPVT suggests that different tasks could be selected depending on the needs of the researcher. It is important to note the aim was not to establish clinical relevance of these measures, but establish whether researchers could use an experimental task of receptive vocabulary that probes a similar construct to what is captured by the PPVT, and use these measures of individual differences. 

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4. Interleaved practice benefits implicit sequence learning and transfer

   https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-021-01168-z  

   Schorn, Julia M.; Knowlton, Barbara J. (April 2021, Memory & Cognition)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Compared to blocked practice, interleaved practice of different tasks leads to superior long-term retention despite poorer initial acquisition performance. This phenomenon, the contextual interference effect, is well documented in various domains but it is not yet clear if it persists in the absence of explicit knowledge in terms of fine motor sequence learning. Additionally, while there is some evidence that interleaved practice leads to improved transfer of learning to similar actions, transfer of implicit motor sequence learning has not been explored. The present studies used a serial reaction time task where participants practiced three different eight-item sequences that were either interleaved or blocked on Day 1 (training) and Day 2 (testing). In Experiment 1, the retention of the three training sequences was tested on Day 2 and in Experiment 2, three novel sequences were performed on Day 2 to measure transfer. We assessed whether subjects were aware of the sequences to determine whether the benefit of interleaved practice extends to implicitly learned sequences. Even for participants who reported no awareness of the sequences, interleaving led to a benefit for both retention and transfer compared to participants who practiced blocked sequences. Those who trained with blocked sequences were left unprepared for interleaved sequences at test, while those who trained with interleaved sequences were unaffected by testing condition, revealing that learning resulting from blocked practice may be less flexible and more vulnerable to testing conditions. These results indicate that the benefit of interleaved practice extends to implicit motor sequence learning and transfer. 

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5. Bears don’t always mess with beers: Limits on generalization of statistical learning in speech

   https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-025-02690-w  

   Murphy, Timothy K; Nozari, Nazbanou; Holt, Lori L (April 2025, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review)

   Abstract Perception changes rapidly and implicitly as a function of passive exposure to speech that samples different acoustic distributions. Past research has shown that this statistical learning generalizes across talkers and, to some extent, new items, but these studies involved listeners’ active engagement in processing statistics-bearing stimuli. In this study, we manipulated the relationship between voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) to establish distributional regularities either aligned with American English or reversed to create a subtle foreign accent. We then tested whether statistical learning across passive exposure to these distributions generalized to new items never experienced in the accent. Experiment 1 showed statistical learning across passive exposure but no generalization of learning when exposure and test items shared the same initial consonant but differed in vowels (bear/pear → beer/pier) or when they differed in initial consonant but shared distributional regularities across VOT and F0 dimensions (deer/tear → beer/pier). Experiment 2 showed generalization to stimuli that shared the statistics-bearing phoneme (bear/pear → beer/pier), but only when the response set included tokens from both exposure and generalization stimuli. Moreover, statistical learning transferred to influence the subtle acoustics of listeners’ own speech productions but did not generalize to influence productions of stimuli not heard in the accent. In sum, passive exposure is thus sufficient to support statistical learning and its generalization, but task demands modulate this dynamic. Moreover, production does not simply mirror perception: generalization in perception was not accompanied by transfer to production. 

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