It's not clear why children learn new languages more quickly than adults. Some people think that grasping a language requires absorbing subtle patterns unconsciously. New research shows that grown-ups might be too smart for their own good.
A group of Belgian adults simultaneously read and heard strings of four made-up words. If a word had a certain vowels, specific consonants always appeared at the beginning or end of the word. The participants read the sequence quickly. Their ability to avoid mistakes showed how well they absorbed the vowels.
Before exposure to the new words, the participants had to press keys to react to letters and numbers. Some people got a faster version of the test. The people who tackled the difficult version claimed more cognitive fatigue, but they did better on the subsequent language task. The researchers think tired learners used less conscious analysis on the word rules and were free to learn like a child.
The team had English-speaking adults listen to streams of syllables secretly clustered into three-syllable words. The participants rated their confidence after they guessed which word was familiar.
Some people in the group did the original test. Some people received magnetic stimulation to disrupt activity in a brain area that has been linked to executive control. The interventions improved performance on the syllable task when participants were unsure about their answers. Conscious recall was suggested by confident answers.
The studies taxed cognitive control differently and measured different skills, which is good for science.
Eleonore Smalle, who spearheaded both papers, offers advice based on her team's findings. She suggests having a glass of wine while listening to a radio show in Italian. It could help.
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