Data for: Cumulative effects of syntactic experience in a between- and a within-language context: Evidence for implicit learning

Error-based implicit learning models suggest that speakers adapt syntactic predictions in response to prior syntactic experience and such adaptation is sensitive to surface structures (word order) (e.g., Chang, Dell, & Bock, 2006). To determine the scope of syntactic processing to which an error-based implicit learning mechanism is applicable and its sensitivity to surface structures, we investigated error-based implicit learning across different constructions in a between-language context of Chinese and English (Experiment 1) and in a within-language context of Chinese (Experiment 2). Our results showed that Chinese speakers integrated cumulative experience in Chinese into syntactic predictions of not only Chinese but also English and that prediction adaptation was not sensitive to surface word order at least in a between-language context. These findings suggest that an error-based implicit learning mechanism is a universal, language-unspecific processing mechanism that is not sensitive to surface syntactic structures. We discuss these findings in terms of theories of structural priming and bilingual syntactic processing and consider the need for a model that accommodates our findings.