title: The P600 in Implicit Artificial Grammar Learning.
abstract: The suitability of the artificial grammar learning (AGL) paradigm to capture relevant aspects of the acquisition of linguistic structures has been empirically tested in a number of EEG studies. Some have shown a syntax-related P600 component, but it has not been ruled out that the AGL P600 effect is a response to surface features (e.g., subsequence familiarity) rather than the underlying syntax structure. Therefore, in this study, we controlled for the surface characteristics of the test sequences (associative chunk strength) and recorded the EEG before (baseline preference classification) and after (preference and grammaticality classification) exposure to a grammar. After exposure, a typical, centroparietal P600 effect was elicited by grammatical violations and not by unfamiliar subsequences, suggesting that the AGL P600 effect signals a response to structural irregularities. Moreover, preference and grammaticality classification showed a qualitatively similar ERP profile, strengthening the idea that the implicit structural mere-exposure paradigm in combination with preference classification is a suitable alternative to the traditional grammaticality classification test.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Centre for Biomedical Research (CBMR), University of Algarve.|Neurocognition and Language Group, Center for Psychology at the University of Porto.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Neurobiology of Language, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.|Neurocognition of Language, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen.
authors.forename: Vasiliki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Folia
authors.affiliation: Neurobiology of Language, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.|Neurocognition of Language, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hagoort
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Centre for Biomedical Research (CBMR), University of Algarve.|Neurobiology of Language, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.|Neurocognition of Language, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen.
authors.forename: Karl Magnus
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Petersson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: 
  EEG
  ; Artificial grammar learning; Artificial syntax; Implicit learning; Preference classification; Structural mere-exposure