QLAB presented at the final two Experimental Group Meeting at the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science. On 12/1, Dr. Qi gave a talk on “Neural preparedness and plasticity of successful adult language learning”.

Language learning during adulthood is notoriously challenging. However, the capability to master a foreign language varies substantially across individuals. Dr. Qi presented findings on 1) how language learning experiences reshape adults’ brain structure and function and 2) what neural characteristics prepare adult learners for successful learning.

On 12/8, An and Violet together presented the behavioral data that we collected at QLAB during the fall semester.

Recent evidence suggests modality- and domain-specific aspects of statistical learning. Two studies based on a triplet learning paradigm investigate the extent to which statistical learning is a reliable, stable, and unified capacity.  One study considers the relationship between statistical learning and language abilities, while the other investigates interference from random input across domains and modalities. These behavioral studies will provide a basis for future neuroimaging studies examining the neural correlates of domain- and modality-specific, as well as -general, statistical learning.