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Investigating a metrical Hebb effect of lists of words
Paice,A. Johnson,A. Legg,R. Smalle,E. Page,M.
Paice,A.
Johnson,A.
Legg,R.
Smalle,E.
Page,M.
Abstract
In four experiments, we describe the first finding of a Metrical Hebb Effect. Participants are shown to exhibit a Hebb Repetition Effect for repeating list-wide stress patterns across sequences of familiar words, even though the lexical items within the “repeating” lists do not themselves repeat. Experiment 1 established the presence of a Hebb effect for metrical patterns, demonstrating significant learning of list-wide metrical patterns over successive presentations. Experiment 2 investigated the effect’s longevity, showing the persistence of learned metrical information after a spacing of three non-repeating lists. Experiment 3 revealed that the effect did not persist over a longer spacing of eight intervening lists. Experiment 4 investigated the learning mechanism, suggesting that chunking, rather than item-position binding, might account for the observed learning of metrical patterns. The authors propose that metrical-pattern learning represents a process of gradual integration of sequences of weak and strong stress accents into higher-level units representing the stress patterns within, and across, words. We briefly discuss some implications of the Metrical Hebb Effect for phonological word-form learning and for speech perception and production.
Description
Date
2025-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Hebb Repetition Effect, Immediate serial recall, Metrical patterns, Working memory
Citation
Paice, A, Johnson, A, Legg, R, Smalle, E & Page, M 2025, 'Investigating a metrical Hebb effect of lists of words', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 78, no. 2, pp. 284-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218241285884
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess