ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2012
Artificial grammar learning meets formal language theory: an overview.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Exploring Variation Between Artificial Grammar Learning Experiments: Outlining a Meta-Analysis Approach.Topics in cognitive science · 2020Pooled it
- Utterance evolution: the road to generative, combinatorial communicators.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Sociolinguistic Context Constrains Bilingual Advantages in Metacognition.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Bilingualism modulates functional connectivity induced by a domain-general artificial grammar learning task.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Far transfer of retrieval-practice benefits: rule-based learning as the underlying mechanism.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- How (not) to Talk to a Plant: An Application of Automata Theory to Plant Communication.Acta biotheoretica · 2024Article
- Article
- A universal diagnosis syntax.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2023Article
- Exploring the neurobiology of Merge at a basic level: insights from a novel artificial grammar paradigm.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Neural evidence suggests phonological acceptability judgments reflect similarity, not constraint evaluation.Cognition · 2023Article
- Cellular computation and cognition.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2023Article
- Event parsing and the origins of grammar.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science · 2022Article
- Performance of Deaf Participants in an Abstract Visual Grammar Learning Task at Multiple Formal Levels: Evaluating the Auditory Scaffolding Hypothesis.Cognitive science · 2022Article
- Unpredictability of the "when" influences prediction error processing of the "what" and "where".PloS one · 2022Article
- Unsaid thoughts: Thinking in the absence of verbal logical connectives.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Linguistic Skill and Stimulus-Driven Attention: A Case for Linguistic Relativity.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Hierarchical syntactic processing is beyond mere associating: Functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence from a novel artificial grammar.Human brain mapping · 2021Article
- Behavioral and Neurodynamic Effects of Word Learning on Phonotactic Repair.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Toward a Computational Neuroethology of Vocal Communication: From Bioacoustics to Neurophysiology, Emerging Tools and Future Directions.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
- Brain Inspired Sequences Production by Spiking Neural Networks With Reward-Modulated STDP.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2021Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Formal language theory (FLT), part of the broader mathematical theory of computation, provides a systematic terminology and set of conventions for describing rules and the structures they generate, along with a rich body of discoveries and theorems concerning generative rule systems. Despite its name, FLT is not limited to human language, but is equally applicable to computer programs, music, visual patterns, animal vocalizations, RNA structure and even dance. In the last decade, this theory has been profitably used to frame hypotheses and to design brain imaging and animal-learning experiments, mostly using the 'artificial grammar-learning' paradigm. We offer a brief, non-technical introduction to FLT and then a more detailed analysis of empirical research based on this theory. We suggest that progress has been hampered by a pervasive conflation of distinct issues, including hierarchy, dependency, complexity and recursion. We offer clarifications of several relevant hypotheses and the experimental designs necessary to test them. We finally review the recent brain imaging literature, using formal languages, identifying areas of convergence and outstanding debates. We conclude that FLT has much to offer scientists who are interested in rigorous empirical investigations of human cognition from a neuroscientific and comparative perspective.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.