Statistical Learning and Language Impairments: Toward More Precise Theoretical Accounts

Abstract

Statistical-learning (SL) theory offers an experience-based account of typical and atypical spoken and written language acquisition. Recent work has provided initial support for this view, tying individual differences in SL abilities to linguistic skills, including language impairments. In the current article, we provide a critical review of studies testing SL abilities in participants with and without developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment and discuss the directions that this field of research has taken so far. We identify substantial vagueness in the demarcation lines between different theoretical constructs (e.g., "statistical learning," "implicit learning," and "procedural learning") as well as in the mappings between experimental tasks and these theoretical constructs. Moreover, we argue that current studies are not designed to contrast different theoretical approaches but rather test singular confirmatory predictions without including control tasks showing normal performance. We end by providing concrete suggestions for how to advance research on SL deficits in language impairments.

Keywords: developmental disorders; dyslexia; implicit learning; language acquisition; literacy; procedural learning; reading; specific language impairment; statistical learning.

Fig. 1.

A possible architecture of the theoretical constructs of cognitive faculties, the brain structures taken to underlie and shape the different forms of learning, and the tasks commonly used to tap the different faculties.

Fig. 2.

Language difficulties at the core of developmental dyslexia versus specific language impairment.