37.2174, Books: Individual Differences in Statistical Learning: Van der Wulp (2026)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2174. Wed Jun 24 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2174, Books: Individual Differences in Statistical Learning: Van der Wulp (2026)

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Date: 22-Jun-2026
From: Jan Martin [lotdissertations-fgw at uva.nl]
Subject: Individual Differences in Statistical Learning: Van der Wulp (2026)


Title: Individual Differences in Statistical Learning
Subtitle: Investigating the Role of Rhythmic Ability and Working
Memory Across Development and Neurodiversity
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke
(LOT)
           http://www.lotpublications.nl/
Book URL: https://dx.medra.org/10.48273/LOT0715

Author(s): Iris Maria van der Wulp

Paperback
ISBN: 978-94-6093-500-8
Pages: 285
Price: 40,00 euros

Abstract:

Children’s vocabulary acquisition starts with the challenge of speech
segmentation: dividing continuous speech into words. One way of
finding the boundaries between words is by tracking the transitional
probabilities between syllables, a process named Statistical Learning
(SL). These probabilities reflect the chance that one syllable is
followed by a certain other syllable, and a low chance indicates a
likely word boundary. SL ability varies across individuals, and this
variation is related to differences in language attainment.
We investigated individual differences in SL and tested a new
hypothesis that musical rhythmic ability relates to SL ability. We
evaluated this in experimental studies with infants, neurotypical
adults, adults with developmental dyslexia, and adults with
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD(H)D). Our adult studies
additionally included measures of working memory and vocabulary, as
they were previously hypothesized to relate to SL.
Across the studies comprising this dissertation, we found evidence
that our participants successfully segmented unfamiliar continuous
speech into words through SL. In infants, individual differences in SL
indeed relate to rhythmic ability. However, we did not find this
effect with adult participants. Results regarding adults’ working
memory influencing SL were inconclusive, but we found small positive
correlations between SL ability and vocabulary size. Finally, we found
that individuals with dyslexia or AD(H)D did not differ from
neurotypical participants in SL abilities. Rather, individual
differences outweighed group effects.
These results imply that rhythmic ability supports language
acquisition at an early age and highlight the importance of studying
individual differences in language acquisition across development and
neurodiversity.

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
                     Psycholinguistics




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