{"id":110,"date":"2014-07-23T18:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.neurecall.com:8888\/blog\/?p=110"},"modified":"2025-06-03T01:52:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T01:52:00","slug":"effortful-language-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/effortful-language-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Language learning: Effortful vs passive learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0101806\">Finn et al. (2014 <em>PLoS One<\/em>)<\/a> find evidence that the more \u201ceffortful\u201d language learning of adults vs. children interferes with their learning of an artificial language (consisting of two-syllable, three-category nonsense words). In particular, adult learners under given instructions to use effort during learning (by ignoring a distractor task) showed a disadvantage in the learning of categories (though an advantage in the learning of words, or rather pseudoword segmentation boundaries) compared to adult learners under more \u201cpassive\u201d conditions. See also&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/newsoffice.mit.edu\/2014\/trying-harder-makes-it-more-difficult-to-learn-some-aspects-of-language-0721.\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beth-jnr-NtfFqT8JBI0-unsplash-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" data-id=\"1998\" src=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beth-jnr-NtfFqT8JBI0-unsplash-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1998\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beth-jnr-NtfFqT8JBI0-unsplash-1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beth-jnr-NtfFqT8JBI0-unsplash-1-250x375.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beth-jnr-NtfFqT8JBI0-unsplash-1-120x180.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@bthjnr?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Beth Jnr<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/gold-and-silver-round-ornament-NtfFqT8JBI0?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finn et al. (2014 PLoS One) find evidence that the more \u201ceffortful\u201d language learning of adults vs. children interferes with their learning of an artificial language (consisting of two-syllable, three-category nonsense words). In particular, adult learners under given instructions to use effort during learning (by ignoring a distractor task) showed a disadvantage in the learning&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/effortful-language-learning\/\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,11],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aging","tag-language"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Language learning: Effortful vs passive learning - Syngli - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evidence found that the more \u201ceffortful\u201d language learning of adults vs. children interferes with their learning of an artificial language\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/effortful-language-learning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Language learning: Effortful vs passive learning - 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