Starting Big- Visual learning

This study aims to further explore the effect of "starting big", that is, the effect of learning from unsegmented input on language learning. Prior studies have shown that, when compared to children, adults rely less on multiword units when learning language, hindering their learning of certain grammatical relations and language domains. Exposing adults to unsegmented input first has shown to increase their reliance on multiword units, leading to better learning of grammatical relations in an artificial language (Arnon & Ramscar, 2012 ; Siegelmand & Arnon 2015). This study aims to investigate the effects of learning from unsegmented vs. segmented stimuli in statistical visual learning. The current study contains 4 experiments. Experiment 1 examines whether learning from larger units provides an advantage in learning the relations between different meaningless visual stimuli. Experiment 2 follows the same method, but in this case the relation between the different parts of the stimuli are not arbitrary. Experiment 3 adds meaning to the stimuli, making them symbols representing real life objects. Experiment 4 is a combination of ex. 2 and 3, adding meaning and a non arbitrary relation between parts of the stimuli.