Identifier

etd-04042007-121040

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Two artificial grammar learning experiments were conducted to study the acquisition of episodic and grammar knowledge with manipulations designed to enhance one or the other type of knowledge. The first experiment trained subjects to recognize specific exemplars (episodic emphasis) or to identify patterns of family resemblance (semantic focus), and then participants were given both an episodic (specific exemplar recognition) and grammar (valid string identification) test. The episodic emphasis training led to better episodic knowledge and equivalent grammar knowledge. The second experiment investigated the same training types over a longer training period and under presence or absence of interference from different study lists. The results confirmed that the two types of knowledge can be independently manipulated and that both types of knowledge are used together whether it is beneficial or not for overall performance. The results are not consistent with current exemplar models or single system abstraction models.

Date

2007

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Robert C Mathews

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2328

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Psychology Commons

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