scholarly journals Correlation versus prediction in children's word learning: Cross-linguistic evidence and simulations

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliana Colunga ◽  
Linda B. Smith ◽  
Michael Gasser
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Specific Learning ◽  
Fertile Area

AbstractThe ontological distinction between discrete individuated objects and continuous substances, and the way this distinction is expressed in different languages has been a fertile area for examining the relation between language and thought. In this paper we combine simulations and a cross-linguistic word learning task as a way to gain insight into the nature of the learning mechanisms involved in word learning. First, we look at the effect of the different correlational structures on novel generalizations with two kinds of learning tasks implemented in neural networks—prediction and correlation. Second, we look at English- and Spanish-speaking 2-3-year-olds' novel noun generalizations, and find that count/mass syntax has a stronger effect on Spanish- than on English-speaking children's novel noun generalizations, consistent with the predicting networks. The results suggest that it is not just the correlational structure of different linguistic cues that will determine how they are learned, but the specific learning mechanism and task in which they are involved.

Morphological Knowledge as an Aid to Word Learning: A Cross-Situational Word Learning Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Finley
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Initial Training ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Morphological Cues

The present study explores morphological bootstrapping in cross-situational word learning. Adult, English-speaking participants were exposed to novel words from an artificial language from three different semantic categories: fruit, animals, and vehicles. In the Experimental conditions, the final CV syllable was consistent across categories (e.g., /-ke/ for fruits), while in the Control condition, the endings were the same, but were assigned to words randomly. After initial training on the morphology under various degrees of referential uncertainty, participants were given a cross-situational word learning task with high referential uncertainty. With poor statistical cues to learn the words across trials, participants were forced to rely on the morphological cues to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, participants in the Experimental conditions repeatedly outperformed participants in the Control conditions. In Experiment 4, when referential uncertainty was high in both parts of the experiment, there was no evidence of learning or making use of the morphological cues. These results suggest that learners apply morphological cues to word meaning only once they are reliably available.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) Test as an Assessment and Screening Instrument for Mild Cognitive Impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Vierck ◽  
Richard J. Porter ◽  
Janet K. Spittlehouse ◽  
Peter R. Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Verbal Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Screening Instrument ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Ceiling Effects

<p>Objective: Traditional word learning tasks have been criticised for being affected by ceiling effects. The Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) test is a non-word verbal learning task designed to be more difficult and therefore have a lower risk of ceiling effects.</p><p>Method: The current study examines the psychometric properties of the CVC in 404 middle-aged persons and evaluates it as a screening instrument for mild cognitive impairment by comparing it to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Differences between currently depressed and non-depressed participants were also examined.</p><p>Results: CVC characteristics are similar to traditional verbal memory tasks but with reduced likelihood of a ceiling effect. Using the standard cut-off on the MoCA as an indication of mild cognitive impairment, the CVC performed only moderately well in predicting this. Depressed participants scored significantly lower on the CVC compared with non-depressed individuals.</p><p>Conclusions: The CVC may be similar in psychometric properties to the traditional word learning tests but with a higher ceiling. Scores are lower in depression.</p>

Song and infant-directed speech facilitate word learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 1036-1054
Author(s):  
Weiyi Ma ◽  
Anna Fiveash ◽  
Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis ◽  
Douglas Behrend ◽  
William Forde Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Relationship

Two separate lines of research have examined the influence of song and infant-directed speech (IDS—a speech register that includes some melodic features) on language learning, suggesting that the use of musical attributes in speech input can enhance language learning. However, the benefits of these two types of stimuli have never been directly compared. In this investigation, we compared the effects of song and IDS for immediate word learning and long-term memory of the learned words. This study examines whether the highly musical stimuli (i.e., song) would facilitate language learning more than the less musical stimuli (i.e., IDS). English-speaking adults were administered a word learning task, with Mandarin Chinese words presented in adult-directed speech (ADS), IDS, or song. Participants’ word learning performance was assessed immediately after the word learning task (immediate word learning) and then 1 day later (long-term memory). Results showed that both song and IDS facilitated immediate word learning and long-term memory of the words; however, this facilitative effect did not differ between IDS and song, suggesting that the relationship between the degree of musicality and language learning performance is not linear. In addition, song and IDS were found to facilitate the word association process (mapping a label to its referent) rather than the word recognition process. Finally, participants’ confidence in their answers might not differ among ADS, IDS, and sung words.

scholarly journals Mutual Information Scaling for Tensor Network Machine Learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Convy ◽  
William Huggins ◽  
Haoran Liao ◽  
K Birgitta Whaley
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Mutual Information ◽  
Many Body ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Tensor Networks ◽  
Tensor Network ◽  
Logistic Regression Algorithm ◽  
Entanglement Structure ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Specific Learning

Abstract Tensor networks have emerged as promising tools for machine learning, inspired by their widespread use as variational ansatze in quantum many-body physics. It is well known that the success of a given tensor network ansatz depends in part on how well it can reproduce the underlying entanglement structure of the target state, with different network designs favoring different scaling patterns. We demonstrate here how a related correlation analysis can be applied to tensor network machine learning, and explore whether classical data possess correlation scaling patterns similar to those found in quantum states which might indicate the best network to use for a given dataset. We utilize mutual information as measure of correlations in classical data, and show that it can serve as a lower-bound on the entanglement needed for a probabilistic tensor network classifier. We then develop a logistic regression algorithm to estimate the mutual information between bipartitions of data features, and verify its accuracy on a set of Gaussian distributions designed to mimic different correlation patterns. Using this algorithm, we characterize the scaling patterns in the MNIST and Tiny Images datasets, and find clear evidence of boundary-law scaling in the latter. This quantum-inspired classical analysis offers insight into the design of tensor networks which are best suited for specific learning tasks.

scholarly journals Phonological similarity influences word learning in adults learning Spanish as a foreign language

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
MELISSA K. STAMER ◽  
MICHAEL S. VITEVITCH
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
New Words ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
Novel Words

Neighborhood density – the number of words that sound similar to a given word (Luce & Pisoni, 1998) – influences word learning in native English-speaking children and adults (Storkel, 2004; Storkel, Armbruster & Hogan, 2006): novel words with many similar sounding English words (i.e., dense neighborhood) are learned more quickly than novel words with few similar sounding English words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). The present study examined how neighborhood density influences word learning in native English-speaking adults learning Spanish as a foreign language. Students in their third semester of Spanish-language classes learned advanced Spanish words that sounded similar to many known Spanish words (i.e., dense neighborhood) or sounded similar to few known Spanish words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). In three word-learning tasks, performance was better for Spanish words with dense rather than sparse neighborhoods. These results suggest that a similar mechanism may be used to learn new words in a native and a foreign language.

One Step BeyondMusical Expertise and Word Learning

2018 ◽  
pp. 208-234
Author(s):  
Stefan Elmer ◽  
Eva Dittinger ◽  
Mireille Besson
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Music Training ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
One Step ◽  
Cascade Effects ◽  
Speech Learning

This chapter takes a new look at an old riddle by discussing putative parallelisms between speech and music processing, as well as music to speech transfer effects. Interestingly, both speech and music rely on comparable acoustic information (i.e. timing, pitch, and timbre) and share, at least partially, perceptive, cognitive, motivational, and motor components. Importantly, in this context, the chapter introduces a cortical framework of speech processing, as well as the perceptual and cognitive operations underlying speech learning mechanisms. It then reviews previous literature pinpointing the influence of music training on segmental and suprasegmental aspects of speech processing as well as on cognitive functions. Two complementary hypotheses underlying such transfer effects—cascade effects and multidimensional processes—are proposed. The issue of shared versus distinct neural networks for music and speech processing is also discussed. Finally, the chapter integrates the often observed perceptual and cognitive advantages of musicians in a holistic framework by considering their interrelations during an ecological, valid, word-learning task.

scholarly journals Word learning from a tablet app: Toddlers perform better in a passive context

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0240519
Author(s):  
Lena Ackermann ◽  
Chang Huan Lo ◽  
Nivedita Mani ◽  
Julien Mayor
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Passive Condition ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Video Viewing ◽  
Active Condition ◽  
Children's Learning

In recent years, the popularity of tablets has skyrocketed and there has been an explosive growth in apps designed for children. Howhever, many of these apps are released without tests for their effectiveness. This is worrying given that the factors influencing children’s learning from touchscreen devices need to be examined in detail. In particular, it has been suggested that children learn less from passive video viewing relative to equivalent live interaction, which would have implications for learning from such digital tools. However, this so-called video deficit may be reduced by allowing children greater influence over their learning environment. Across two touchscreen-based experiments, we examined whether 2- to 4-year-olds benefit from actively choosing what to learn more about in a digital word learning task. We designed a tablet study in which “active” participants were allowed to choose which objects they were taught the label of, while yoked “passive” participants were presented with the objects chosen by their active peers. We then examined recognition of the learned associations across different tasks. In Experiment 1, children in the passive condition outperformed those in the active condition (n = 130). While Experiment 2 replicated these findings in a new group of Malay-speaking children (n = 32), there were no differences in children’s learning or recognition of the novel word-object associations using a more implicit looking time measure. These results suggest that there may be performance costs associated with active tasks designed as in the current study, and at the very least, there may not always be systematic benefits associated with active learning in touchscreen-based word learning tasks. The current studies add to the evidence that educational apps need to be evaluated before release: While children might benefit from interactive apps under certain conditions, task design and requirements need to consider factors that may detract from successful performance.

scholarly journals The Psychoprophylactic Method of Painless Childbirth in Socialist Czechoslovakia: from State Propaganda to Activism of Enthusiasts

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ema Hrešanová
Keyword(s):  
Pain Relief ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
The West ◽  
Medical Journals ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Pharmacological Method ◽  
Insight Into

This paper explores the history of the ‘psychoprophylactic method of painless childbirth’ in socialist Czechoslovakia, in particular, in the Czech and Moravian regions of the country, showing that it substantially differs from the course that the method took in other countries. This non-pharmacological method of pain relief originated in the USSR and became well known as the Lamaze method in western English-speaking countries. Use of the method in Czechoslovakia, however, followed a very different path from both the West, where its use was refined mainly outside the biomedical frame, and the USSR, where it ceased to be pursued as a scientific method in the 1950s after Stalin’s death. The method was imported to Czechoslovakia in the early 1950s and it was politically promoted as Soviet science’s gift to women. In the 1960s the method became widespread in practice but research on it diminished and, in the 1970s, its use declined too. However, in the 1980s, in the last decade of the Communist regime, the method resurfaced in the pages of Czechoslovak medical journals and underwent an exciting renaissance, having been reintroduced by a few enthusiastic individuals, most of them women. This article explores the background to the renewed interest in the method while providing insight into the wider social and political context that shaped socialist maternity and birth care in different periods.

Learning Through Processing: Toward an Integrated Approach to Early Word Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan C. Meylan ◽  
Elika Bergelson
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Novel Word Learning

Children's linguistic knowledge and the learning mechanisms by which they acquire it grow substantially in infancy and toddlerhood, yet theories of word learning largely fail to incorporate these shifts. Moreover, researchers’ often-siloed focus on either familiar word recognition or novel word learning limits the critical consideration of how these two relate. As a step toward a mechanistic theory of language acquisition, we present a framework of “learning through processing” and relate it to the prevailing methods used to assess children's early knowledge of words. Incorporating recent empirical work, we posit a specific, testable timeline of qualitative changes in the learning process in this interval. We conclude with several challenges and avenues for building a comprehensive theory of early word learning: better characterization of the input, reconciling results across approaches, and treating lexical knowledge in the nascent grammar with sufficient sophistication to ensure generalizability across languages and development. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Transposing Aristophanes: The Theory and Practice of Translating Aristophanic Lyric

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES ROBSON
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Academic Interest ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
End Products ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Modern Greece ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Insight Into

The reception of Aristophanes has gained extraordinary momentum as a topic of academic interest in the last few years. Contributions range from Gonda Van Steen's ground-breaking Venom in Verse. Aristophanes in Modern Greece to Hall and Wrigley's Aristophanes in Performance 421 BC–AD 2007, which contains contributions from a wide range of scholars and writers, a number of whom have had experience of staging Aristophanes' plays as live theatre. In Found in Translation, J. Michael Walton has also made strides towards marrying the theory of translation to the practice of translating Aristophanes (something I have myself also sought to do in print). And with the history of Aristophanic translation, adaptation, and staging being rapidly pieced together (in the English-speaking world at least, where Hall, Steggle, Halliwell, Sowerby, Walsh, and Walton, for example, have all made their own contributions), much of the groundwork has been laid for a study such as is attempted in this article. Here I aim to take a broad look across a range of translations in order to see how one particular text type within Aristophanic drama has been approached by translators, namely Aristophanes' lyric passages. The aim of this study will be to give both an insight into the numerous considerations that translators take into account when translating Aristophanic lyric and an impression of the range of end products that have emerged over the last two hundred years.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document