A meta-analysis of 97 studies reveals that statistical learning and language ability are only weakly correlated

Despite the widely held belief that individual differences in statistical learning (SL) abilities are associated with linguistic skills, research has produced mixed results. To provide a comprehensive assessment of the literature, we conducted a meta-analysis of 97 studies examining the correlation between SL and linguistic abilities. Results revealed a small but significant overall correlation (r = .16). Our analysis considered sample characteristics, SL task features, and the type of language test as predictors of the strength of observed correlations. Notably, variation across studies was only accounted for by SL task features (i.e., paradigm, stimulus modality and stimulus domain). No indications of publication bias were identified. These findings lend support to a positive yet limited association between SL and language outcomes and underscore the need for thoughtful task selection.