The role of feedback in implicit and explicit artificial grammar learning: a comparison between dyslexic and non-dyslexic adults

The importance of feedback for learning has been firmly established over the past
few decades. The question of whether feedback plays a significant role in the statistical
learning abilities of adults with dyslexia, however, is currently unresolved. Here, we examined
the role of feedback in grammaticality judgment, type of structural knowledge, and confidence
rating in both typically developed and dyslexic adults.We implemented two artificial grammar
learning experiments: implicit and explicit. The second experiment was directly analogous to
the first experiment in all respects except training format: the standard memorization instruction
was replaced with an explicit rule-search instruction. Each experiment was conducted with
and without performance feedback.While both groups showed significantly improved learning
in the feedback-based explicit artificial grammar learning task, only the typically developed
adults demonstrated higher levels of conscious structural knowledge. The present study
demonstrates that the basis for the grammaticality judgment of adults with dyslexia differs
from that of typically developed adults, regardless of increase in the level of explicitness.