Statistical Learning Ability as a Measure of Cognitive Function
Steffen A. Herff, Nur Amirah Abdul Rashid, Jimmy Lee, Lee Tih-Shih, Kat Rose Agres · 2019
Herff, S. A., Nur, A., Lee, J., Lee, T., & Agres, K. (2019). Statistical Learning Ability as a Measure of Cognitive Function. In A. K. Goel, C. M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society. Statistical Learning (SL), the ability to extract probabilistic information from the environment, is a subject of much debate. It appears intuitive that such a profound mechanism of learning should carry predictive power towards general cognitive ability. Yet, previous attempts have struggled to link SL ability to measures of general cognitive function, suffering from low correlations and mediocre test-retest reliability. Here, we deploy a new continuous auditory SL task that achieves high test-retest reliability (~ r = .8) and shows that SL ability does significantly correlate with general cognitive function (up to r =. 56). Results are discussed in light of i) the theoretical implications of the high test-retest reliability of our novel SL task, ii) SL ability as a marker of general cognitive function, and iii) future methodological considerations. -This manuscript has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in poster-from at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society in Montreal, Canada at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal on Wednesday July 24th – Saturday July 27th, 2019 -