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Electrophysiological evidence for the implicit learning of the finite-state grammar

A finite-state grammar with 8 "grammatical" 5- letter strings has been constructed in order to elicit changes in ERP wave forms related to learning (N2). The grammar consists of one initial node that allows for two different, but interconnected "grammatical" paths. The grammatical strings always end in the same letter (S). The participants were given a non-related task (to press the button when they see a red letter "P" in the string) while they were presented with grammatical and ungrammatical strings. To ensure implicit learning, the first 40 strings are all grammatical. The second group of 240 strings is presented as an oddball paradigm with rare ungrammatical strings occurring at the ratio 1:5. The transition from the first to the second group of strings is invisible to the participants. The results show higher N2 amplitude for the ungrammatical strings regardless of the explicit task thus confirming that the implicit learning mechanism is capable of generalizations even after only a few exposures.

implicit learning; finite-state grammar; event-related potentials; N2; oddball paradigm

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