When life gives you lemons, make a left: Investigation of contextualization of learning in speech production using speech errors

Language production is a flexible yet complex system and is constantly updated by new experience. Within this system, implicit phonotactic learning provides a window into how speakers acquire and generalize rules that govern sound patterns. This thesis investigates how such rules are represented, focusing on the role of mini-grammars, which are context-sensitive representational systems that allow learning of different patterns and protect the learning from interference. One hypothesis is that only self-interfering and English-inconsistent rules like 2nd-order vowel-contingent rules require segregation into a mini-grammar to be learned, whereas simple non-self-interfering 1st-order constraints integrate directly into the main phonotactic system. Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed this prediction: 1st-order constraints were learned rapidly and robustly but remained vulnerable to interference from English, suggesting no mini-grammar formation. Experiments 3 and 4 investigated whether 2nd-order rules, once learned inside a mini-grammar, generalize to structurally similar rules. Learners only learned the first rule and did not show evidence of learning the second rule, and later learning influenced the retention of the first rule. Computational modeling in Experiment 4 replicated these interference patterns but retained multiple constraints, unlike behavioral results. Thus, there was no clear evidence for generalization, suggesting that learned representations were specific to restricted consonants and could be reactivated to influence prior learning in similar contexts.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Hwang, Suyeon

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fisher, Cynthia L
• Dell, Gary S
• Federmeier, Kara D
• Montag, Jessica L
• Willits, Jon A

• speech errors
• phonotactics
• implicit learning

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Suyeon Hwang

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132678

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132678