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                 Language Ability Linked to Pattern Recognition

   by VOA News

   The ability to learn a second language may depend less on linguistic
   skills and more on the ability to recognize patterns, according to new
   research.
   "These new results suggest that learning a second language is
   determined to a large extent by an individual ability that is not at
   all linguistic," says Ram Frost of Hebrew University in Jerusalem who
   conducted the study.
   In the study, researchers used different tasks to measure how American
   students recognized the structure of words and sounds in Hebrew. The
   students were tested in two consecutive semesters.
   The students were also tested in their ability to spot statistical
   patterns in visual stimuli. Participants watched a stream of complex
   shapes shown one at a time. What the students did not know was that the
   shapes were organized into eight triplets. The order of the triplets
   was randomized, but each triplet always appeared in the same sequence.
   After viewing the stream, students were tested to see if they'd picked
   up the pattern.
   The results showed a "strong statistical association" between
   recognizing patterns in the shapes and learning another language.
   "It's surprising that a short 15-minute test involving the perception
   of visual shapes could predict to such a large extent which of the
   students who came to study Hebrew would finish the year with a better
   grasp of the language," says Frost.
   The findings could have broader implications beyond language learning.
   "This finding points to the possibility that a unified and universal
   principle of statistical learning can quantitatively explain a wide
   range of cognitive processes across domains, whether they are
   linguistic or non-linguistic," concluded the researchers.
   The study is published in [1]Psychological Science, a journal of the
   Association for Psychological Science.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/language-ability-linked-to-pattern-re
   cognition/1670776.html

References

   1. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/picking-up-a-second-language-is-predicted-by-the-ability-to-learn-statistical-patterns.html
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/language-ability-linked-to-pattern-recognition/1670776.html