CLiPS Colloquium - Yung Han Khoe: Bilingual syntax as error-based implicit learning
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Time - location
Thursday 03/07/2025 - Room S.R.012
Schedule:
11:30 - 12:15: presentation
12:15 - 12:30: coffee break
12:30 - 13:15: discussion
Abstract
In this talk, I will give an overview of work that shows how different aspects of bilingual syntax can be modeled as error-based implicit learning. I will first introduce the Dual-path model (Chang et al., 2006) and the Bilingual Dual-path model (Tsoukala et al., 2021) and I will give a short overview of the previous work that has been done with these models (Khoe & Frank, 2024). I will then discuss in more depth the simulated experiments that I have conducted on cross-language structural priming using the Bilingual Dual-path model (Khoe et al., 2023). The results of these simulations increase support for implicit learning as an account for structural priming by extending the account from within-language to crosslanguage structural priming. Next, I will present simulated ERP experiments on P600/N400 effects in L2 learners in response to syntactic violations (Verwijmeren et al., 2023). Then, I will give an overview of ongoing work on how proficiency might modulate the strength of cross-language structural priming in the model. Finally, I will present a study on how codeswitching increases cross-language structural priming in the Bilingual Dual-path model and in Spanish-English bilinguals.
References
- Chang, F., Dell, G. S., & Bock, K. (2006). Becoming syntactic. Psychological Review, 113(2), 234. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.113.2.234
- Khoe, Y. H., Tsoukala, C., Kootstra, G.J., Frank, S. (2023). Is structural priming between different languages a learning effect? Modelling priming as error-driven implicit learning, Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 38 (pp. 537-557), https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1998563
- Khoe, Y.H., Frank, S.L. (2024). The Bilingual Dual-path model: Simulating bilingual production, comprehension, and development, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1998563
- Tsoukala, C., Broersma, M., Van Den Bosch, A., & Frank, S. L. (2021). Simulating codeswitching using a neural network model of bilingual sentence production. Computational Brain & Behavior, 4, 87–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42113-020-00088-6
- Verwijmeren, S., Frank, S.L., Fitz, H. & Khoe, Y.H. (2023). A neural network simulation of event-related potentials in response to syntactic violations in second-language learning, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Cognitive Modelling, preprint: http://www.stefanfrank.info/pubs/ICCM_paper_Stephan.pdf
Bio
I recently started as a postdoc in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. My research there focuses on implicit learning mechanisms for syntactic production in healthy older adults. It is part of a project that is funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant, supervised by Katrien Segaert, Linda Wheeldon (University of Agder, Norway) and Evelien Heyselaar (Radboud University, Netherlands). Until I defend my thesis, I am also still a PhD candidate at the Centre for Language Studies (CLS) at Radboud University in the Netherlands. My PhD research focused on understanding how people learn, process and produce (multiple) language(s) by using traditional experimental techniques paired with computational cognitive models. The PhD is supervised by Stefan Frank, Gerrit Jan Kootstra and Rob Schoonen.