Do cues compete? The role of multiple cues in learning a novel grammar.

When acquiring a language learners are expected to extract multiple regularities present in that language and apply them when interpreting or producing fluent speech. However, there are various instances in previous literature where participants have been able to acquire some regularities but not others (Hickey, 2022; Mirković et al., 2021; Vujović et al. 2021). Models of learning (Bates & MacWhinney, 1989; Culbertson et al., 2017) have posited that when there are multiple cues available in a language, they compete with each other for relevance based on their availability and relevance to the learner. The first four experiments in this thesis address whether grammatical cues embedded in semantics compete with and subsequently block less relevant cues when participants attempt to learn a novel grammar. This was examined by training participants on an artificial language which contained both semantic and phonological-distributional cues of word class and testing whether they could generalize associations between different cues to novel words after training. The influence of semantic cues was addressed by manipulating their availability during training. The third and fourth experiments examine whether the presence of semantics as individual word meanings unrelated to grammar, influences word learning and cue acquisition. Finally, the fifth and sixth experiments examine whether phonological-distributional cues compete amongst themselves and whether presenting cues sequentially can support learning of cues which would otherwise be blocked out as irrelevant. Across six experiments this thesis demonstrates that the presence of semantic cues does not interfere with learning of phonological-distributional cues. Contrary to this, phonological-distributional cues may instead compete with each other to be associated with semantic cues.