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Sketchpad Series

The Influence of Memory Reactivation During Sleep on Vocabulary and Grammar Learning

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Stacey Reyes¹ (staceydomagasreyes@gmail.com), Aaron Gibbings¹, Elizabeth Laplante¹, Laura J Batterink¹; ¹Western University

Two essential components of language learning include vocabulary (item-specific) learning, and rule generalization – the ability to extract regularities from input and apply them to novel instances. During sleep, information is reactivated, leading to the consolidation and strengthening of both item-specific and abstract memory representations. However, it is unclear whether sleep-based memory consolidation influences both vocabulary and regularity-based knowledge to a similar degree, or whether one type of knowledge is preferentially consolidated over the other. In the current project, we test how externally-induced memory reactivation, known as targeted memory reactivation (TMR), influences both vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Participants learned an artificial language comprised of individual vocabulary items along with a hidden suffix rule, followed by a 90-minute nap, during which a subset of the words were covertly presented during stage 3 sleep. This TMR group was compared to two control groups – one that napped without cues (sleep controls) and one that watched a short film (wake controls). Vocabulary knowledge and grammar rule generalization were assessed upon awakening, and after an overnight delay. Results showed that knowledge of the trained words declined over the delay, and this decline was not modulated by sleep or TMR cuing. However, preliminary analyses suggest that only cued participants showed enhanced overall sensitivity to the suffix rule following overnight consolidation. These findings provide initial evidence that, within a language learning context, TMR preferentially impacts general rule-based knowledge over specific item-based vocabulary representations. Ongoing analyses will focus on how sleep physiology relates to these learning effects.

Topic Area: LANGUAGE: Lexicon