Is Chunking Ability Unitary Across Levels of Linguistic Representation?

Much like with statistical learning, there is a tendency in the cognitive and language science literature to treat chunking as a unitary, domain-general ability that operates fairly similarly across domains of cognition. An alternative position suggests chunking in language and cognition involves multiple mechanisms tuned to the specific perceptual properties and statistical regularities of the target structures of learning. To test these hypotheses, we compared performance on two different forms of chunking in English: (1) multiword chunking as assessed by a recall task involving multiple high- and low-frequency three-word sequences, and (2) clausal chunking in which participants intuitively insert chunk boundaries on a touchscreen tablet while listening to speech extracts and viewing the corresponding transcripts. Results indicated no correlations between multiword chunking and clausal chunking, providing initial support for the notion that chunking processes may likely not operate equally across or even within the same cognitive domain, casting doubt on a unitary view of chunking. Despite limitations in the tasks used to assess chunking, they nonetheless provide a useful starting point for future studies looking into the nature of chunking across different levels of linguistic representation.