Many studies have investigated the extent to which word learning is underpinned by statistical learning, i.e. tracking probabilistic relationships between forms and referents. Previous literature has investigated whether these processes differ in bilingual learners – who have to track two such sets of mappings in their linguistic environment. However, the evidence is mixed: some say bilinguals have a learning advantage and some find no evidence of differences.

 

The current study by Simonetti et al. (2024) aims to further explore this in an experiment using the cross-situational word learning paradigm. In this paradigm participants hear words and view arrays of object across a series of trials. Taking each trial in isolation the word is ambiguous, but there are consistent co-occurrences of words with referents across the trials. Two groups of participants will be compared: monolingual English speaker and English-German bilinguals. Using this paradigm, the study can track learning over time as well as looking at individual trial by trial analyses. The researchers predict specifically that bilingual learners will have a specific advantage in learning 1:2 mappings, where one-word maps to two objects. The study will use Bayes Factors as the method of inference when analysing the data, allowing them to differentiate evidence for "no difference" from ambiguous evidence from which no conclusion can be drawn.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over four rounds of review. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' and recommender's comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/8n5gh
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

• Advances in Cognitive Psychology
• Biolinguistics
• Collabra: Psychology
• Cortex
• Experimental Psychology
• Journal of Cognition
• Peer Community Journal
• PeerJ
• Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice
• Royal Society Open Science
• Studia Psychologica
• Swiss Psychology Open

 
References

 

Simonetti, M. E., Lorenz, M. G., Koch, I., & Roembke, T. C. (2024). The Influence of Bilingualism on Statistical Word Learning: A Registered Report. In principle acceptance of Version 5 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/8n5gh

 

How does emotion influence item memory (what?) temporal memory (when?) and associative memory (in which context?), and does this differ for younger and older adults? Previous research has found inconsistent results, possibly due to small sample sizes. In this study, Laulan and Rimmele (2024) and will build on the paradigm in Palombo et al. (2021) in which participants see images embedded in videos and are asked to remember the images (what?), their temporal position within the videos (where?), and the association between the images and the videos (in which context?). Image valence (positive vs negative vs neutral) and participant age-group (18-30 vs 60-80 yr olds) are manipulated. Pre-registered analyses will first look at the two age groups separately to test for an effect of valence for each of the memory components, and second test for modulating effects of age-group. To be cost-effective, a sequential analysis approach with statistical analyses conducted at three time points and a maximum sample size of 150 younger and 150 older adults is planned.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and therefore awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/z4e8j
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:

 

References
 

1. Laulan, P. & Rimmele, U. (2024). The role of positive and negative emotions on multiple components of episodic memory (“what”, “when”, “in which context”) in older compared to young adults: a pre-registered study. In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/z4e8j

 

2. Palombo, D. J., Te, A. A., Checknita, K. J. & Madan, C. R. (2021). Exploring the Facets of Emotional Episodic Memory: Remembering “What,” “When,” and “Which”. Psychological Science, 32, 1104–1114. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621991548

Previous research has demonstrated that experimental participants – both adults and infants – can track syllable co-occurrences in an artificial speech stream. This statistical learning (SL) is thought to support word segmentation and to be a core component of language acquisition. There is also some evidence that SL, as measured through artificial language tasks, is related to individual differences in language learning. What is not well understood is the underpinnings of individual differences in SL. In the current study, van der Wulp et al. (2023) will investigate the relationship between auditory SL and musical – specifically rhythmic – abilities. This work takes advantage of recent methodological innovations which allow online assessment of SL via electroencephalography (EEG) measures of neural entrainment. Up to N=105 participants will be recruited (using a well specified optional stopping procedure) and will be exposed to an artificial language using this EEG method to measure their response to the language through the exposure phase. In addition, post-tests will assess participants’ learning of the artificial language using behavioural tasks, as well as their abilities in a battery of tasks measuring rhythmic, musical, and cognitive abilities, and their vocabulary size. Core analyses will investigate whether the neural signature of statistical learning is found at a group level (i.e. replicating previous work) and whether at the individual level this is related to rhythm perception. Bayes factors will be used to assess the extent of evidence for these hypothesized relationships over the null. Exploratory analyses will explore other relationships, including with working memory and vocabulary size. 

 

The topic of individual differences in language learning and is important, but work in this area is often underpowered, and the correlational nature of the research makes it vulnerable to HARKing. In this context, the current RR looks set to make an important contribution. The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review by the recommender and two expert reviewers, and one additional round of review by the recommender, before issuing in-principle acceptance.

 

Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

• Advances in Cognitive Psychology
• Brain and Neuroscience Advances
• Collabra: Psychology
• Cortex
• Experimental Psychology
  
• Imaging Neuroscience
• In&Vertebrates
• Journal of Cognition
• NeuroImage: Reports
• Peer Community Journal
• PeerJ
• Royal Society Open Science
• Studia Psychologica

 

References
 
1. van der Wulp, I. M., Struiksma, M. E., Batterink, L. J., & Wijnen, F. N. K. (2023). Investigating individual differences in linguistic statistical learning and their relation to rhythmic and cognitive abilities: A speech segmentation experiment with online neural tracking. In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/2y6sx