Table 1.
Descriptive data of the included studies.
| Design & sample |
Language development test |
Statistical learning task |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Reference | Research design | Age of participants | Native language of participants | Sample size | Language domain | Test name | Perceptual modality | Test name | Stimuli | Statistical pattern | Measure of learning | Obtained Correlations |
| 1 | [17] | cross-sectional | 6–12 years | English | 38 | literacy | WRAT | visual | triplet segmentation task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | forced choice | control age: r = .327, p < .05 |
| control grade: r = .364, p < .05 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | [36] | longitudinal | measure 1: 7 months, measure 2: 24 months | Italian | 30 | lexicon | MCDI, mean length of utterance | visual | artificial grammar learning | shapes | ABB-like rule | eye movement | SL explains 15% of grammar variance |
| syntax | |||||||||||||
| lexicon | SL predicts grammar: Beta = 0.373; p = .036 | ||||||||||||
| syntax | |||||||||||||
| SL does not predict voc: Beta = 0.157; p = .379 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | [37] | cross-sectional | 7–11 years | English | 20 | lexicon | sentence comprehension task, word-picture matching task, TOWRE | visual | serial reaction time task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | reaction times | grammar: r = −.48, p < .05 |
| syntax | voc: r = .20, p = ns | ||||||||||||
| literacy | reading: words: r = −.24, p = ns, nonwords: r = −.37, p = ns | ||||||||||||
| 4 | [38] | cross-sectional | 8–12 years | English | 26 | lexicon syntax | PPVT, CASL | visual | oddball task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | event-related potentials | ERPs-voc: r (26) = −.14, p = ns |
| reaction times | RTs-voc: r (24) = .22, p = ns | ||||||||||||
| ERPs-grammar: r (26) = −.26, p = ns | |||||||||||||
| 5 | [39] | cross-sectional | 5–12 years | English | 78 | lexicon | PPVT, EVT | auditory | triplet segmentation task | syllables | transitional probabilities | forced choice | rec. voc: r = .23, p < .05 |
| exp. voc: r = .28, p < .001 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | [40] | longitudinal | measure 1: 17 months, measure 2: 19–30 months | English | 71 | lexicon | MCDI | auditory | triplet segmentation task | syllables | non-adjacent dependencies | eye movement | SL & concurrent lang. dev. seg.-exp. voc. size: r = .32, n = 68, p = .008 |
| seg.-rec. voc. size: r = .32, n = 68, p = .007 | |||||||||||||
| gen.-expr. voc. size: r = −.04, n = 59, p = .762 | |||||||||||||
| gen.-rec. voc. size: r = −.09, n = 59, p = .508 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | [41] | cross-sectional | 6–12 years | French | 15 | syntax | TROG, PPVT | visual | serial reaction time task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | reaction times | ECOSSE: touchscreen: r = .24, p = .37, |
| lexicon | keyboard: r = .28, p = .31 | ||||||||||||
| EVIP: touchscreen: r = −.075, p = <.05 (indicating positive association between the measures, see notes), keyboard: r = .34, p = .20 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | [42] | cross-sectional | 7–11 years | French | 21 | syntax | TROG, PPVT, ELO | visual | serial reaction time task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | reaction times | ELO: r = .11, n = 21, p = .63 |
| lexicon | ECOSSE: r = .25, n = 21, p = .26 | ||||||||||||
| EVIP: r = .27, n = 21, p = .22 | |||||||||||||
| 9 | [43] | cross-sectional | 8–12 years | English | 26 | lexicon | PPVT, CELF | auditory | triplet segmentation task | syllables | transitional probabilities | forced choice | voc: r = −.072, p = ns |
| overall language | lang: r = −.172, p = ns | ||||||||||||
| 10 | [44] | cross-sectional | 6–9 years | English | 27 | lexicon | PPVT | auditory | artificial grammar learning | words | rule | forced choice | beta = −.004, p = .10 |
| but interaction with item type: beta = .008, p = .02 (children with higher voc. showed larger distinction between familiar and ungrammatical items) | |||||||||||||
| 11 | [45] | longitudinal | measure 1: 4 months, measure 2: 8–9 months | French | 33 | overall language | babbling questionnaire | auditory | triplet segmentation task | syllables | transitional probabilities | eye movement | SL - concurrent babbling: r = −.42, p = .02 |
| SL - babbling at 4 mo: r = −.08, p = .66 | |||||||||||||
| 12 | [46] | cross-sectional | 8–11 years | English | 22 | overall language | CELF, CTOPP | auditory | triplet segmentation task | syllables | transitional probabilities | forced choice | sentence recall: r = .19, p .39 |
| phonology | nonword repetition: r = .08, p = .72 | ||||||||||||
| digit recall: r = −.31, p = .16 | |||||||||||||
| 13 | [2] | cross-sectional | 4–6 years | English | 100 | syntax | syntactic priming task, BPVS | visual | serial reaction time task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | reaction times | voc: r = .183, p = ns |
| lexicon | |||||||||||||
| 14 | [47] | cross-sectional | 6–8 years | English | 68 | syntax | language comprehension task, PPVT | visual | triplet segmentation task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | forced choice | SL and voc.: r = .22, p = ns |
| lexicon | |||||||||||||
| 15 | [48] | cross-sectional | 7–10 years | Dutch | 36 | literacy | word reading test, pseudoword reading test, spelling test | visual | triplet segmentation task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | forced choice | read.words: r = .08, p = .64 |
| read.pseud: r = .04, p = .83 | |||||||||||||
| spelling: r = .10, p = .56 | |||||||||||||
| 16 | [49] | cross-sectional | 7–10 years | Dutch | 35 | overall language | CELF | visual | serial reaction time task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | reaction times | r = .18, p = .30 |
| 17 | [50] | cross-sectional | 15–16 months | English | 38 | lexicon | word recognition task, MCDI | auditory | triplet segmentation task | syllables | transitional probabilities | eye movement | voc. size: r = .16, p = ns |
| LPE: r = −.38, p < .05 | |||||||||||||
| 18 | [51] | longitudinal | measure 1: 12 months; measure 2: 15 months; measure 3: 18 months | English | 34 | lexicon | MCDI | auditory | artificial grammar learning | words | non-adjacent dependencies | eye movement | females: |
| - rec.voc 12mo & NAD 15mo: r = 0.57, p = .022, n = 16 | |||||||||||||
| - rec.voc 12mo & NAD 18mo: r = −0.65, p = .009, n = 15 | |||||||||||||
| - exp.voc 12mo & NAD 15mo: r = .26, p = ns, n = 16 | |||||||||||||
| - exp.voc 12mo & NAD 18mo: r = −.44, p = ns, n = 15 | |||||||||||||
| males: | |||||||||||||
| - rec.voc 12mo & NAD 15mo: r = −.20, p = ns, n = 18 | |||||||||||||
| - rec.voc 12mo & NAD 18mo: r = .06, p = ns, n = 15 | |||||||||||||
| - exp.voc 12mo & NAD 15mo: r = −.23, p = .022, n = 18 | |||||||||||||
| - exp.voc 12mo & NAD 18mo: r = .38, p = .009, n = 15 | |||||||||||||
| 19 | [52] | cross-sectional | 8–12 years | English | 20 | lexicon | gating task, word definition task | auditory | triplet segmentation task | syllables | transitional probabilities | forced choice | lex-phon.: r = −.28, p = ns |
| lex.sem.: r = −.10, p = ns | |||||||||||||
| 20 | [53] | cross-sectional | 8–9 years | Spanish | 26 | literacy | LEE, PROESC | visual | artificial language learning | words | graphotactic rule | forced choice | word reading: r = .14, p = ns |
| pseudoword reading: r = −.12, p = ns | |||||||||||||
| word writing: r = .44, p = .023 | |||||||||||||
| pseudoword writing: r = .08, p = ns | |||||||||||||
| 21 | [54] | cross-sectional | 6–9 years | English | 31 | literacy | WJ, TOWRE, CTOPP | visual | artificial grammar learning | shapes | rule, rule | forced choice | visual SL |
| phonolog | auditory | pure tones | - phon.awar.: r = .52, p < .01 | ||||||||||
| - basic reading: r = .11, p = .81 | |||||||||||||
| - reading fluency: r = .16, p = .81 auditory SL | |||||||||||||
| - phon.awar.: r = .16, p = .53 | |||||||||||||
| - basic reading: r = .31, p = .27 | |||||||||||||
| - reading fluency: r = .22, p = .53 | |||||||||||||
| 22 | [55] | cross-sectional | 30 months | English | 36 | lexicon | MCDI | audiovisual | cross-situational word learning | actions & verbs | co-ocurrence of word-object pairs | eye movement | r = .22, p = .19 |
| 23 | [56] | longitudinal | measure 1: 8–9 months; measure 2: 13–14 months; | English | 56 | lexicon | MCDI | visual | sequence learning task | shapes | transitional probabilities | eye movement | concurrent MCDI (n = 56) |
| - voc.comp.: r = .28, p = .04 | |||||||||||||
| - phrases: r = .07, p = .62 | |||||||||||||
| - gesture comp.: r = .17, p = .22 | |||||||||||||
| predictive MCDI (n = 40) | |||||||||||||
| - voc.comp.: r = .24, p = .15 | |||||||||||||
| - phrases: r = .11, p = .50 | |||||||||||||
| - voc.prod.: r = r = .01, p = .96 | |||||||||||||
| - gesture comp.: r = .34, p = .04 | |||||||||||||
| 24 | [57] | cross-sectional | 20 months | English | 37 | lexicon | MCDI | audiovisual | triplet segmentation task | words & pictures | transitional probabilities | eye movement | high-TP: beta = −.492, p = .001 |
| ostensive word learning task | low-TP: beta = .276, p = .090 | ||||||||||||
| inf.small voc.: learn high-TP words (t (17) = 2.53, p = .02, d = .60), but not low-TP words (t (17) = −.54, p = .6) | |||||||||||||
| 25 | [58] | cross-sectional | 12 & 14 months | English | 48 | lexicon | MCDI | audiovisual | cross-situational word learning | words & shapes | co-ocurrence of word-object pairs | eye movement | 2 (Age) by 2 (learner/nonlearner) X 2 (Receptive/Productive Vocabulary) anova: |
| - main effect of learner/nonlearner: F (1,44) = 13.47, p < .001 | |||||||||||||
| - infants who learned the pairs, were the ones with more advanced vocabularies for their age | |||||||||||||
| 26 | [59] | cross-sectional | 4–10 years | English | 553 | lexicon | TOLD, OWPVT, CTOPP | auditory | triplet segmentation task Simon task | syllables | transitional probabilities, rule | forced choice, sequence replication | word segmentation: CTOPP-BNW, r = −.10, p < .05; CTOPP-NWR, r = .10, p < .05; EOWPVT = .08, p < .05; and ROWPVT, r = .13, p < .01 |
| morphology | visual | colour squares | sequence learning (Simon Task): CTOPP-E, r = .09, p < .05; CTOPP-BNW r = .09, p < .05; and CTOPP = MFD, r = .09, p < .05 | ||||||||||
| syntax | |||||||||||||
| 27 | [60] | cross-sectional | 3–12 years | English | 60 | morphology | CELF | auditory | artificial grammar learning | A(B)C sentences | dependency rules | forced choice | r = .387, p < .001 |
| 28 | [61] | cross-sectional | 3–6 years | English | 34 | phonology | GFTA, PPVT | audiovisual | ostensive word-learning task | words & cartoon figures | phonotactic probabilities | forced choice | vocabulary: |
| lexicon | - referent identification: r = .36, p < .05 | ||||||||||||
| - word identification: r = .12, p > .5 | |||||||||||||
| - picture naming: r = −.04, p > .5 | |||||||||||||
| phonology: | |||||||||||||
| - referent identification: r = −.26, p > .10 | |||||||||||||
| - word identification: r = −.05, p > .5 | |||||||||||||
| - picture naming: r = −.09, p > .5 | |||||||||||||
| 29 | [62] | cross-sectional | 7–12 years | Norwegian | 65 | literacy | TOWRE | visual | triplet segmentation task | cartoon figures | transitional probabilities | forced choice | vocabulary: |
| 30 | [63] | cross-sectional | 2–7 years | English | 19 | lexicon | PPVT, familiar word processing tasks | audiovisual | cross-situational word learning | words & cartoon figures | co-ocurrence of word-object pairs | eye movement | receptive vocabulary: r = .37, p = .10 |
| word processing: r = .46, p = .03 | |||||||||||||
| 31 | [64] | cross-sectional | 15-16 & 19–20 months | English | 32 | lexicon | MCDI | audiovisual | cross-situational word learning | words & objects | co-ocurrence of word-object pairs | eye movement | r = .18, p = .29 |
| 32 | [65] | cross-sectional | 2–5 years | English | 47 | lexicon | PPVT | audiovisual | cross-situational word learning | words & objects | co-ocurrence of word-object pairs | forced choice | r = .57, p < .05 |
Abbreviations: BPVS: British Picture Vocabulary Scale; CASL: Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language; CELF: Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals; CTOPP: Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing; ELO: Evaluation du Langage Oral; EVT: Expressive Vocabulary Test; GFTA: Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation; LEE: Test de Lectura y Escritura en Español; MCDI: MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories; OWPVT: One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test; PPVT: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Task; PROESC: Evaluacion de los Processos de Escritura; TOWRE: Test of Word Reading Efficiency; TROG: Test for Reception of Grammar; Woodcock–Johnson Test of Achievement; WRAT: Wide Range Achievement Test.