Statistical learning in childhood: dimensions, developmental trajectory, and relation with cognitive control

Compared to other developmental processes, such as cognitive control, there is relatively little consensus on the developmental trajectory of statistical learning (the ability to implicitly extract environmental regularities). The literature is further complicated as statistical learning may comprise distinct subtypes, differing in the regularities being tracked. Three statistical learning abilities and cognitive control were assessed in 187 5-12-year-olds (42.8% female, 84.6% White). The ability to extract cue-based and nonadjacent statistics was age-invariant, whereas adjacent dependency extraction yielded a greater benefit in younger than older children. There was only weak evidence of an association with cognitive control, despite research suggesting that immature top-down guidance facilitates statistical learning. Importantly, the different subtypes were uncorrelated, supporting the notion that statistical learning is multifaceted.