Psychology Seminar Series: Dr. Laura Batterink

Neural entrainment as a measure and a mechanism of statistical language learning

Statistical learning—the ability to extract regularities from sensory input through exposure—is widely thought to play a foundational role in language acquisition. Many past studies of statistical learning have focused on learners’ ability to make explicit recognition judgments after learning has occurred. However, this ability represents just one limited—and often absent—outcome of statistical learning.

In this talk, I will present a line of research that uses neural entrainment as a real-time index of statistical learning. Across multiple EEG studies, we observe rapid and robust neural entrainment to statistically defined word units in continuous speech. Neural entrainment emerges online during exposure, does not depend on attention to the speech stream, and predicts performance on an implicit measure of learning. Further, experimentally boosting entrainment at the relevant frequency during learning enhances subsequent learning outcomes, suggesting a mechanistic role.

Speakers

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  Laura Batterink, PhD

  Associate Professor, Psychology
  Brain and Mind Institute, Western University

  Dr. Batterink's research focuses on understanding how implicit and explicit memory contribute to language acquisition and related learning mechanisms. She is also interested in examining how sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes contribute to different aspects of language and learning. Her research leverages EEG, event-related potentials (ERPs), polysomnography, and other neuroimaging methods.