Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Summary

Presented here is a protocol introducing a set of child-friendly statistical learning tasks geared towards examining children’s learning of temporal statistical patterns across domains and sensory modalities. The developed tasks collect behavioral data using the web-based platform and task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data for examining neural engagement during statistical learning.

Abstract

Statistical learning, a fundamental skill to extract regularities in the environment, is often considered a core supporting mechanism of the first language development. While many studies of statistical learning are conducted within a single domain or modality, recent evidence suggests that this skill may differ based on the context in which the stimuli are presented. In addition, few studies investigate learning as it unfolds in real-time, rather focusing on the outcome of learning. In this protocol, we describe an approach for identifying the cognitive and neural basis of statistical learning, within an individual, across domains (linguistic vs. non-linguistic) and sensory modalities (visual and auditory). The tasks are designed to cast as little cognitive demand as possible on participants, making it ideal for young school-aged children and special populations. The web-based nature of the behavioral tasks offers a unique opportunity for us to reach more representative populations nationwide, to estimate effect sizes with greater precision, and to contribute to open and reproducible research. The neural measures provided by the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task can inform researchers about the neural mechanisms engaged during statistical learning, and how these may differ across individuals on the basis of domain or modality. Finally, both tasks allow for the measurement of real-time learning, as changes in reaction time to a target stimulus is tracked across the exposure period. The main limitation of using this protocol relates to the hour-long duration of the experiment. Children might need to complete all four statistical learning tasks in multiple sittings. Therefore, the web-based platform is designed with this limitation in mind so that tasks may be disseminated individually. This methodology will allow users to investigate how the process of statistical learning unfolds across and within domains and modalities in children from different developmental backgrounds.

Introduction

Statistical learning is an elementary skill supporting the acquisition of rule-governed combinations in language inputs¹. Successful statistical learning ability in infants predicts later language learning success^2,3. Variability in statistical learning skills in school-aged children has also been associated with vocabulary⁴ and reading^5,6. Difficulty in statistical learning has been proposed as one etiological mechanism underlying language impairment⁷. Despite the association betw....

Protocol

All participants gave written consent to participate and study was conducted in accordance with the Institutional Review Board.

1. Overview of the statistical learning paradigm utilized in the web-based protocol

1. Include four tasks in the current paradigm: image (visual-nonlinguistic), letter (visual-linguistic), tone (auditory-nonlinguistic), and syllable (auditory-linguistic).
   1. Construct stimuli for visual tasks using 12 standalone alien cartoon images (image) and 12 le.......

Discussion

The methods presented in the current protocol provide a multimodal paradigm for understanding the behavioral and neural indices of statistical learning across the course of development. The current design allows for the identification of individual differences in statistical learning ability across modalities and domains, which can be used for future investigation of the relationship between statistical learning and language development. Since an individuals’ statistical learning ability is found to vary across dom.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
4 Button Inline Response Device	Cambridge Research Systems	SKU: N1348	An fMRI reponse pad used for measuring in-scanner response time
Short/Slim Canal Tips	Comply Foam	SKU: 40-15028-11	Short & slim in-ear canal tips are recommended for children to protect hearing and allow for them to hear the stimuli while in the scanner.
jsPsych	jsPsych	https://www.jspsych.org/	jsPsych is a JavaScript library for running behavioral experiments in a web browser.
Speech Synthesizer	Praat	Version 6.1.14	This program is an artificial speech synthesizer which was used to create the syllable stimuli.
Web-based statistical learning tasks	Zenodo	http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3820620 (2020).	All web-based statistical learning tasks are available for free access on Zenodo.