Cited by 683Language Development and DisordersPhonetics and Phonology ResearchReading and Literacy Development

Incidental Language Learning: Listening (and Learning) Out of the Corner of Your Ear

Saffran, Jenny R., Newport, Elissa L., Aslin, Richard N., Tunick, Rachel A., Barrueco, Sandra·1997·Psychological Science

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the performance of first-grade children and adults on an incidental language-learning task. Learning entailed word segmentation from continuous speech, an initial and crucial component of language acquisition. Subjects were briefly exposed to an unsegmented artificial language, presented auditorily, in which the only cues to word boundaries were the transitional probabilities between syllables. Subjects were not told that they were listening to a language, or even to listen at all; rather, they were engaged in a cover task of creating computer illustrations. Both adults and children learned the words of the language. Moreover, the children performed as well as the adults. These data suggest that a statistical learning mechanism (transitional probability computation) is able to operate incidentally and, surprisingly, as well in children as in adults.

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Two experiments showed that adults and 6- to 7-year-old children could learn words from a continuous artificial speech stream incidentally, while engaged in an unrelated drawing task. Children performed as well as adults, suggesting statistical word segmentation can operate without directed attention and may be age-invariant.

Key findings

  • In Experiment 1, after one 21-min exposure, adults scored 21.1/36 (58.6%) and children scored 21.3/36 (59.2%), both significantly above chance (adults: t(11) = 2.38, p < .05; children: t(12) = 3.67, p < .01), with no significant adult-child difference, t(23) > 1, n.s.
  • In Experiment 2, after doubled exposure across two sessions, adults scored 26.3/36 (73.1%) and children scored 24.6/36 (68.3%), both significantly above chance (adults: t(11) = 6.33, p < .01; children: t(10) = 5.56, p < .01), again with no significant adult-child difference, t(21) > 1, n.s.
  • Doubling exposure improved performance significantly, F(1, 46) = 12.5, p < .01, with no main effect of age, F(1, 46) = 0.162, n.s., and no interaction between exposure length and age, F(1, 46) = 0.94, n.s.
  • Subjects learned the words despite not being told the tape was a language or that they would be tested; the only cues to word boundaries were transitional probabilities between syllables, higher within words (.31–1.0) than across word boundaries (.1–.2).

Methods

  • Participants were monolingual English speakers: Experiment 1 had 12 University of Rochester undergraduates and 13 children aged 6–7; Experiment 2 had 12 paid adult college students and 11 children aged 6–7 from University of Rochester summer camps.
  • Exposure used a 21-min synthesized speech stream containing 300 tokens of each of six trisyllabic nonsense words in random order, with no pauses or acoustic/prosodic cues to word boundaries; learning was tested with 36 two-alternative forced-choice trials pairing words against nonword foils.
  • The cover task had subjects create computer illustrations with Kid Pix 2 while the tape played; Experiment 2 repeated the 21-min exposure on a second day before testing.

Limitations

  • The paper states the linguistic input was more concentrated than natural learning environments and was impoverished, lacking utterance boundaries and acoustic/prosodic cues that probabilistically correlate with word boundaries; the study targeted incidental learning of statistical information rather than a full model of natural word-boundary acquisition.
  • The paper states it was not trying to assess whether learning occurred without conscious awareness; subjects varied in reported awareness, and these differences did not correlate with performance.
  • The paper states further research is needed to see whether child superiority in later natural-language stages appears in more complex statistical learning tasks or involves different, nonstatistical mechanisms; evident from the text, the samples were small and limited to 6- and 7-year-olds using an artificial language, so generalization to infants and natural language acquisition is not established.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00690.x

Cites

44 of 44 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

8 of 34 cited sources checked · 5 supported · 1 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

  • Interpretationcitation
    § Incidental Language Learning

    The absence of age differences is in line with the literature on age of learning in natural language acquisition.

    “This absence of age differences is in line with the literature on age of learning in natural language acquisition.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Johnson & Newport, 1989 source
    • cites Newport, 1990 source

      In “Evidence of Maturational Constraints in Second Language Learning,” the paper reports no significant relationship between age of arrival and performance among learners arriving at ages 17–39, which could support an absence of age differences among adults. But it reports strong age-of-acquisition effects through childhood in both first and second language learning. The citing sentence does not specify the age range or language feature for which differences were absent. (LLM, conf=0.83)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Premisecitation
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Basic word order is acquired equivalently by both child and adult learners.

    “basic word order is acquired equivalently by both child and adult learners”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Johnson & Newport, 1989 source
    • cites Newport, 1990 source
  • Premisecitation
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Across a language sample, sounds that co-occur within words tend to be more highly correlated with one another than sound pairs spanning word boundaries.

    “Across a language sample, sounds that co-occur within words tend to be more highly correlated with one another than sound pairs spanning word boundaries.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Aslin et al., 1996

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites Brent & Cartwright, 1996 source

      Section 4.1 (page unavailable) describes placing word boundaries at troughs in transitional probabilities between syllables, and Section 5 says frequent adjacent subsequences are more likely to be treated as one word. These passages support the general idea that co-occurrence helps distinguish within-word sequences from boundary-spanning ones, but they do not report a comparison showing that sound pairs within words are, across a language sample, more highly correlated than pairs spanning boundaries. (LLM, conf=0.78)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
    • cites Hayes & Clark, 1970

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Premisecitation
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Infants may be able to exploit statistical cues to word boundaries.

    “infants may be able to exploit statistical cues to word boundaries”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Aslin, Woodward, LaMendola, & Bever, 1996

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites Brent & Cartwright, 1996 source
    • cites Saffran, Newport, & Aslin, 1996 source
  • Premisecitation
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    In later stages of language acquisition, learners who began as children surpass those who began as adults.

    “In later stages, learners who began as children surpass those who began as adults”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Johnson & Newport, 1989 source
    • cites Krashen, Long, & Scarcella, 1982

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites Newport, 1990 source
  • May combine two claims. 13
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. 13
  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    Language acquisition does not favor adults over children; the initial stages of language acquisition are characterized by age invariance.

    “language acquisition does not favor adults over children. Rather, the initial stages of language acquisition are characterized by age invariance.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Johnson & Newport, 1989 source
    • cites Krashen, Long, & Scarcella, 1982

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites Newport, 1990 source

      In “What Changes Over Maturation” (page unavailable), Newport says that children and adults make different types of errors in the early stages of learning ASL, contrary to the claim of age invariance. The paper also predicts a child advantage for componential analysis and an adult advantage for whole-word learning, rather than a uniform pattern across language acquisition. (LLM, conf=0.88)

      Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    Recent computational models of language acquisition suggest that at least some pertinent language-learning mechanisms may induce structure from the input using statistical methods similar to those suggested by incidental-learning research.

    “recent computational models of language acquisition suggest that at least some pertinent language-learning mechanisms may induce structure from the input using statistical methods similar to those suggested by incidental-learning research”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Brent & Cartwright, 1996 source
    • cites Christiansen, 1994

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites Elman, 1990 source
  • May combine two claims.

    Findingown data
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Children performed as well as adults in both experiments.

    “the children performed as well as the adults in both experiments.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • May combine two claims.

    Findingown data
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Some subjects reported being aware of learning during exposure, whereas others actively tuned out the speech stream and were unaware of learning anything.

    “Some subjects reported that they were aware of learning during the exposure period, whereas others actively tuned out the speech stream and were unaware of learning anything at all.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Study design and conductnone given
    § Method

    Subjects were told they were in an experiment on auditory stimuli and creativity and had about 20 min to work on an illustration while a tape played in the background.

    “Subjects were told that they were participating in an experiment investigating the influence of auditory stimuli on creativity, and that they had approximately 20 min to work on an illustration using Kid Pix 2©, a coloring program designed for children, while a tape was playing in the background.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Study design and conductnone given
    § Method

    Subjects were not told that the sounds were actually words from a nonsense language.

    “Subjects were not told that the sounds were actually words from a nonsense language.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • May combine two claims.

    Premisereasoning
    § Incidental Language Learning

    The transitional probability from one sound to the next is generally highest when the two sounds follow one another word-internally, and transitional probabilities spanning word boundaries tend to be relatively low.

    “the transitional probability from one sound to the next will generally be highest when the two sounds follow one another word-internally; transitional probabilities spanning word boundaries will tend to be relatively low.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Study design and conductnone given
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    Subjects were not told that they were listening to a language or even to listen at all; they were engaged in a cover task of creating computer illustrations.

    “Subjects were not told that they were listening to a language, or even to listen at all; rather, they were engaged in a cover task of creating computer illustrations.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    Information about event frequency is acquired by humans across a broad range of natural and experimental situations and is maintained even when there is no reason to remember the events.

    “Information about event frequency is acquired by humans across a broad range of natural and experimental situations, and is maintained even when there is no reason to remember the events in question”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Hasher, Zacks, Rose, & Sanft, 1987 source
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Study design and conductnone given
    § Method

    Six nonword foils were created using syllables from the language in sequences that never occurred during exposure, even across word boundaries.

    “Six nonword foils were created to test subjects' learning, using syllables from the language in sequences that never occurred during the exposure period, even across word boundaries”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • May combine two claims.

    Study design and conductnone given
    § Incidental Language Learning

    The linguistic input was in the background and not part of the primary task.

    “the linguistic input was in the background and not part of the primary task.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Study design and conductown data
    § Method

    The speech stream contained no pauses or any other acoustic or prosodic cues to word boundaries.

    “no pauses or any other acoustic or prosodic cues to word boundaries were present.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationown data
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Incidental learning is a robust phenomenon that may play a role in natural language acquisition.

    “The fact that children, in particular, learned under these conditions suggests that incidental learning is a robust phenomenon that may play a role in natural language acquisition.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.
    • Rests on an assumption: During exposure, subjects' attention was not directed to the speech stream or to the word segmentation task.
  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Study design and conductown data
    § Method

    Four practice trials using English word-nonword pairs ensured subjects understood the response procedure before the 36 test trials.

    “After four practice trials using word-nonword pairs from English to ensure that subjects understood the response procedure, the 36 test trials were presented.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationown data
    § Incidental Language Learning

    The computation of transitional probabilities can proceed incidentally and therefore might underlie aspects of both natural language acquisition and learning in other domains.

    “These results also suggest that the computation of transitional probabilities can proceed incidentally, and therefore might underlie aspects of both natural language acquisition and learning in other domains.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.
    • Rests on an assumption: During exposure, subjects' attention was not directed to the speech stream or to the word segmentation task.
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    The frequency of events present in the environment is a fundamental type of information encoded in memory incidentally.

    “It has been suggested that the frequency of events present in the environment is a fundamental type of information that is encoded in memory incidentally”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Hasher & Zacks, 1984

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    Implicit-learning phenomena are based on learning mechanisms that capitalize on the statistical structure of the input.

    “implicit-learning phenomena are based on learning mechanisms that capitalize on the statistical structure of the input”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Cleeremans, 1993

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites Perruchet & Pacteau, 1990 source
    • cites Reber, 1993

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation
    § INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING: Listening (and Learning) out of the Corner of Your Ear

    Language acquisition by children is incidental in the sense that the child's primary task is understanding rather than acquiring language.

    “The process of acquiring language is thus incidental in the sense that the child's primary task is presumably understanding, rather than acquiring, language”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Chomsky, 1975
    • cites Krashen, 1985

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Rather than including all cues necessary for a model of natural word-boundary acquisition, the experimental situation specifically targeted incidental learning of statistical information.

    “Rather than including all the cues necessary for a model of the natural acquisition of word boundaries, the experimental situation specifically targeted the incidental learning of statistical information.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.
  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Interpretationnone given
    § Incidental Language Learning

    The linguistic input presented a more concentrated learning exposure than would be available to a learner in a more natural learning environment.

    “the linguistic input presented a more concentrated learning exposure than would be available to a learner in a more natural learning environment.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.
  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning
    § Incidental Language Learning

    Such learning abilities are a critical aspect of the child's genetic endowment and may also be a crucial component of the human language-learning instinct.

    “Such learning abilities are a critical aspect of the child's genetic endowment, and as such may also be a crucial component of the human language-learning instinct.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.
  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationcitation
    § Incidental Language Learning

    The input was quite impoverished, containing neither utterance boundaries nor the acoustic and prosodic cues that are probabilistically correlated with word boundaries in some languages.

    “the input was quite impoverished, containing neither utterance boundaries nor the acoustic and prosodic cues that are probabilistically correlated with word boundaries in some languages”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Saffran et al., 1996 source
    • Rests on an assumption: Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.
  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

    Interpretationreasoning
    § Incidental Language Learning

    The present study provided a learning situation that is perhaps even more challenging than the child's actual language environment.

    “The present study also provided a learning situation that is perhaps even more challenging than the child's actual language environment.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.
23 of 23
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Little research has examined the characteristics of incidental learning pertinent to children's language acquisition.

    “However, little research has examined the characteristics of incidental learning pertinent to the process of children's language acquisition.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Word segmentation from continuous speech is an initial and crucial component of language acquisition, and the artificial-language segmentation task validly models that component.

    “Learning entailed word segmentation from continuous speech, an initial and crucial component of language acquisition.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    During exposure, subjects' attention was not directed to the speech stream or to the word segmentation task.

    “Any learning that occurred was thus doubly incidental, in that attention was directed neither to the word segmentation task nor to the acoustic stimuli forming the words.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Before children can begin to acquire syntax, they must discover the words of their language.

    “Before children can begin to acquire syntax, they must discover the words of their language”
4 of 4

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • First-grade children as well as adults were able to succeed on the word segmentation task, even when the speech stream was presented incidentally while subjects were attending to another task.

    “A second set of studies demonstrated that first-grade children as well as adults were able to succeed on this task, even when the speech stream was presented incidentally while subjects were attending to another task (Saffran et al., 1997).”

    From Statistical learning of tone sequences by human infants and adults (1999) · cites this paper as Saffran et al., 1997

Statistics recomputed

Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.

  • ConsistentF(1, 46) = 0.162reported n.s. · recomputed p = .689

    “F(1, 46) = 0.162, n.s.”

  • ConsistentF(1, 46) = 0.94reported n.s. · recomputed p = .337

    “F(1, 46) = 0.94, n.s.”

2 of 2

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Experiment 1 between-group t statistic conflicts with reported group results

    Minor

    The reported group means and one-sample t statistics imply a between-group t statistic of about 0.13, not greater than 1. The claim that the difference was nonsignificant is consistent with the group results; the reported t inequality is not.

  • Interaction test has incompatible error degrees of freedom

    Minor

    The two experiments have 48 subjects in total: 12 adults and 13 children in Experiment 1, and 12 adults and 11 children in Experiment 2. An age-by-exposure interaction across these four independent groups would have 44 error degrees of freedom, not the reported 46.

2 of 2

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Aslin R.N., 1996, Signal to syntax, 117
  2. Christiansen M.H. (1994). Infinite languages, finite minds: Connectionism, learning and linguistic structure. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.
  3. Cleeremans A., 1995, Backpropagation: Theory, architectures, and applications, 273
  4. Cole R., 1980, A model of speech perception
  5. Ellis N.C., 1994, Implicit and explicit learning of languages
  6. Mintz T.H., 1995, Proceedings of NELS 25, 2, 43

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Saffran, J. R., Newport, E. L., Aslin, R. N., Tunick, R. A., & Barrueco, S.
Affiliations
  • University of Rochester (US)
  • Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
  • United States Department of Veterans Affairs (US)
  • University of Denver (US)
Corresponding author
Saffran, Jenny R.
Venue
Psychological Science
Published
1997-03
Volume
8
Issue
2
Pages
101-105
ISSN
  • 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9280
OpenAlex
W2083195749
Cited by
675
References
44
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 76 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 40 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 32
FWCI
10.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
Keywords
incidental language learning, word segmentation, connected speech, artificial languages, transition probabilities, statistical learning, auditory learning, children versus adults, first grade students, syllable boundaries

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Claims read by deepseek-v4.1-flash under definition version 3 (extract-v3) on 2026-10-11.

Classified by jev-1.13-20260917 (gold-guideline-v0.2) on 2026-10-11.

Cited sources are checked by gpt-6-sol.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

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