scholarly journals Do Children Use Language Structure to Discover the Recursive Rules of Counting?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose M. Schneider ◽  
Jess Sullivan ◽  
Franc Marušič ◽  
Rok Žaucer ◽  
Priyanka Biswas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Number ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Mathematical Knowledge ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Successor Function ◽  
Recursive Structure ◽  
Critical Step ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Foundational Principle ◽  
Linguistic Rules

We test the hypothesis that children acquire the successor function — a foundational principle stating that every natural number n has a successor n+1 — by learning the productive linguistic rules that govern verbal counting. Previous studies report that speakers of languages with less complex count list morphology have greater counting and mathematical knowledge at earlier ages in comparison to speakers of more complex languages (e.g., Miller & Stigler, 1987). Here, we tested whether differences in count list transparency affected children’s acquisition of the successor function in three languages with relatively transparent count lists (Cantonese, Slovenian, and English) and two languages with relatively opaque count lists (Hindi and Gujarati). We measured 3.5- to 6.5-year-old children’s mastery of their count list’s recursive structure with two tasks assessing productive counting, which we then related to a measure of successor function knowledge. While the more opaque languages were associated with lower counting proficiency and successor function task performance in comparison to the more transparent languages, a unique within-language analytic approach revealed a robust relationship between measures of productive counting and successor knowledge in almost every language. We conclude that learning productive rules of counting is a critical step in acquiring knowledge of recursive successor function across languages, and that the timeline for this learning varies as a function of counting transparency.

scholarly journals Counting to Infinity: Does learning the syntax of the count list predict knowledge that numbers are infinite?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junyi Chu ◽  
Pierina Cheung ◽  
Rose M. Schneider ◽  
Jess Sullivan ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Natural Number ◽  
Recursive Function ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Successor Function ◽  
Counting Rule ◽  
Number Words ◽  
The Us ◽  
Counting Range ◽  
Per Se

By around the age of 5½, many children in the US judge that numbers never end, and that it is always possible to add +1 to a set. These same children also generally perform well when asked to label the quantity of a set after 1 object is added (e.g., judging that a set labeled “five” should now be “six”). These findings suggest that children have implicit knowledge of the “successor function”: every natural number, n, has a successor, n+1. Here, we explored how children discover this recursive function, and whether it might be related to discovering productive morphological rules that govern language-specific counting routines (e.g., the rules in English that represent base 10 structure). We tested 4- and 5-year-old children’s knowledge of counting with three tasks, which we then related to (1) children’s belief that 1 can always be added to any number (the successor function), and (2) their belief that numbers never end (infinity). Children who exhibited knowledge of a productive counting rule were significantly more likely to believe that numbers are infinite (i.e., there is no largest number), though such counting knowledge wasn’t directly linked to knowledge of the successor function, per se. Also, our findings suggest that children as young as four years of age are able to implement rules defined over their verbal count list to generate number words beyond their spontaneous counting range, an insight which may support reasoning over their acquired verbal count sequence to infer that numbers never end.

scholarly journals To infinity and beyond: Children generalize the successor function to all possible numbers years after learning to count

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierina Cheung ◽  
Miriam Rubenson ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Natural Number ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Number Word ◽  
Successor Function ◽  
Developmental Transition

Recent accounts of number word learning posit that when children learn toaccurately count sets (i.e., become "cardinal principle" or "CP" knowers),they have a conceptual insight about how the count list implements thesuccessor function - i.e., that every natural number *n *has a successordefined as *n+1* (Carey, 2004, 2009; Sarnecka & Carey, 2008). However,recent studies suggest that knowledge of the successor function emergessometime after children learn to accurately count, though it remainsunknown when this occurs, and what causes this developmental transition. Wetested knowledge of the successor function in 100 children aged 4 through 7and asked how age and counting ability are related to: (1) children'sability to infer the successors of all numbers in their count list, and (2)knowledge that *all *numbers have a successor. We found that children donot acquire these two facets of the successor function until they are about5.5 or 6 years of age - roughly 2 years after they learn to accuratelycount sets and become CP-knowers. These findings show that acquisition ofthe successor function is highly protracted, providing the strongestevidence yet that it cannot drive the cardinal principle induction. Wesuggest that counting experience, as well as knowledge of recursivecounting structures, may instead drive the learning of the successorfunction.

Socio-demographic influences on language structure and change: Not all learners are the same

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Bergmann ◽  
Rick Dale ◽  
Gary Lupyan
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Demographic Differences ◽  
Language Structure

AbstractThe Now-or-Never bottleneck has important consequence for understanding why languages have the structures they do. However, not addressed by C&C is that the bottleneck may interact with who is doing the learning: While some languages are mostly learned by infants, others have a large share of adult learners. We argue that such socio-demographic differences extend and qualify C&C's thesis.

Effects of Concurrent Manual Task Performance on Connected Speech Acoustics in Individuals With Parkinson Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 2099-2117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Whitfield ◽  
Zoe Kriegel ◽  
Adam M. Fullenkamp ◽  
Daryush D. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Task Condition ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Speech Acoustics ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Manual Task ◽  
Task Conditions

Purpose Prior investigations suggest that simultaneous performance of more than 1 motor-oriented task may exacerbate speech motor deficits in individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the extent to which performing a low-demand manual task affected the connected speech in individuals with and without PD. Method Individuals with PD and neurologically healthy controls performed speech tasks (reading and extemporaneous speech tasks) and an oscillatory manual task (a counterclockwise circle-drawing task) in isolation (single-task condition) and concurrently (dual-task condition). Results Relative to speech task performance, no changes in speech acoustics were observed for either group when the low-demand motor task was performed with the concurrent reading tasks. Speakers with PD exhibited a significant decrease in pause duration between the single-task (speech only) and dual-task conditions for the extemporaneous speech task, whereas control participants did not exhibit changes in any speech production variable between the single- and dual-task conditions. Conclusions Overall, there were little to no changes in speech production when a low-demand oscillatory motor task was performed with concurrent reading. For the extemporaneous task, however, individuals with PD exhibited significant changes when the speech and manual tasks were performed concurrently, a pattern that was not observed for control speakers. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8637008

Linguistic Competence in Aphasia

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-92
Author(s):  
Leonard L. LaPointe
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Feral Children ◽  
Performance Factors ◽  
Performance Loss ◽  
Linguistic Rules ◽  
Communication Goals ◽  
Aphasia Treatment ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Loss of implicit linguistic competence assumes a loss of linguistic rules, necessary linguistic computations, or representations. In aphasia, the inherent neurological damage is frequently assumed by some to be a loss of implicit linguistic competence that has damaged or wiped out neural centers or pathways that are necessary for maintenance of the language rules and representations needed to communicate. Not everyone agrees with this view of language use in aphasia. The measurement of implicit language competence, although apparently necessary and satisfying for theoretic linguistics, is complexly interwoven with performance factors. Transience, stimulability, and variability in aphasia language use provide evidence for an access deficit model that supports performance loss. Advances in understanding linguistic competence and performance may be informed by careful study of bilingual language acquisition and loss, the language of savants, the language of feral children, and advances in neuroimaging. Social models of aphasia treatment, coupled with an access deficit view of aphasia, can salve our restless minds and allow pursuit of maximum interactive communication goals even without a comfortable explanation of implicit linguistic competence in aphasia.

The Influence of Emotionally Relevant Context on the Evoked Cardiac Response Triggered by an Irrelevant Stimulus

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Kuniecki ◽  
Robert Barry ◽  
Jan Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Auditory Stimulus ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Cardiac Response ◽  
Mental Task ◽  
Negative Valence ◽  
Cardiac Deceleration ◽  
Relevant Context ◽  
Stimulus Valence ◽  
Affective Stimulus

Abstract The effect of stimulus valence was examined in the evoked cardiac response (ECR) elicited by the exposition of neutral and negative slides as well as by an innocuous auditory stimulus presented on the affective foregrounds generated by the slides. The exposition of the aversive slide produced prolonged cardiac deceleration in comparison with the neutral slide. Similar prolonged deceleration accompanied exposition of the neutral auditory stimulus on the negative visual foreground in comparison with the neutral foreground. We interpret these results as an autonomic correlate of extended stimulus processing associated with the affective stimulus. The initial deceleration response, covering two or three slower heart beats, may be prolonged for several seconds before HR reaches the baseline level again. In such a case the evoked cardiac deceleration can be functionally divided into two parts: the reflexive bradycardia (ECR1) elicited by neutral stimuli and a late decelerative component (LDC). We can speculate that the latter is associated with an additional voluntary continuation of processing of the stimulus. This must involve some cognitive aspect different from the mental task performance which leads to the accelerative ECR2, and we suggest that processing of a stimulus with negative valence is involved in generating the LDC.

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