Two Modes of Transfer in Artificial Grammar Learning

Participants can transfer grammatical knowledge acquired implicitly in 1 vocabulary to new sequences instantiated in both the same and a novel vocabulary. Two principal theories have been advanced to account for these effects. One suggests that sequential dependencies form the basis for cross-domain transfer (e.g., Z. Dienes, G. T. M. Altmann, & S. J. Gao, 1999). Another argues that a form of episodic memory known as abstract analogy is sufficient (e.g., L. R. Brooks & J. R. Vokey, 1991). Three experiments reveal the contributions of the 2. In Experiment 1 sequential dependencies form the only basis for transfer. Experiment 2 demonstrates that this process is impaired by a change in the distributional properties of the language. Experiment 3 demonstrates that abstract analogy of repetition structure is relatively immune to such a change. These findings inform theories of artificial grammar learning and the transfer of grammatical knowledge.