scholarly journals Adults are more efficient in creating and transmitting novel signalling systems than children

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Kempe ◽  
Nicolas Gauvrit ◽  
Alison Gibson ◽  
Margaret Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Iterated Learning ◽  
Cognitive Maturity ◽  
Signalling Systems ◽  
Communicative Effectiveness

Iterated language learning experiments have shown that meaningful and structured signalling systems emerge when there is pressure for signals to be both learnable and expressive. Yet such experiments have mainly been conducted with adults using language-like signals. Here we explore whether structured signalling systems can also emerge when signalling domains are unfamiliar and when the learners are children with their well-attested cognitive and pragmatic limitations. In Experiment 1, we compared iterated learning of binary auditory sequences denoting small sets of meanings in chains of adults and 5-7-year old children. Signalling systems became more learnable even though iconicity and structure did not emerge despite applying a homonymy filter designed to keep the systems expressive. When the same types of signals were used in referential communication by adult and child dyads in Experiment 2, only the adults, but not the children, were able to negotiate shared iconic and structured signals. Referential communication using their native language by 4-5-year old children in Experiment 3 showed that only interaction with adults, but not with peers resulted in informative expressions. These findings suggest that emergence and transmission of communication systems is unlikely to be driven by children, and point to the importance of cognitive maturity and pragmatic expertise of learners as well as feedback-based scaffolding of communicative effectiveness by experts during language evolution.

scholarly journals Adults are more efficient in creating and transmitting novel signalling systems than children

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Kempe ◽  
Nicolas Gauvrit ◽  
Alison Gibson ◽  
Margaret Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Iterated Learning ◽  
Cognitive Maturity ◽  
Signalling Systems ◽  
Communicative Effectiveness

Abstract Iterated language learning experiments have shown that meaningful and structured signalling systems emerge when there is pressure for signals to be both learnable and expressive. Yet, such experiments have mainly been conducted with adults using language-like signals. Here we explore whether structured signalling systems can also emerge when signalling domains are unfamiliar and when the learners are children with their well-attested cognitive and pragmatic limitations. In Experiment 1, we compared iterated learning of binary auditory sequences denoting small sets of meanings in chains of adults and 5- to 7-year-old children. Signalling systems became more learnable even though iconicity and structure did not emerge despite applying a homonymy filter designed to keep the systems expressive. When the same types of signals were used in referential communication by adult and child dyads in Experiment 2, only the adults, but not the children, were able to negotiate shared iconic and structured signals. Referential communication using their native language by 4- to 5-year-old children in Experiment 3 showed that only interaction with adults, but not with peers resulted in informative expressions. These findings suggest that emergence and transmission of communication systems are unlikely to be driven by children, and point to the importance of cognitive maturity and pragmatic expertise of learners as well as feedback-based scaffolding of communicative effectiveness by experts during language evolution.

scholarly journals Multiscale kinematic analysis reveals structural properties of change in evolving manual languages in the lab

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Pouw ◽  
Mark Dingemanse ◽  
Yasamin Motamedi ◽  
Asli
Keyword(s):  
Computer Vision ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Kinematic Analysis ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Interdisciplinary Project ◽  
Articulatory Movement ◽  
Iterated Learning

Reverse engineering how language emerged is a daunting interdisciplinary project. Experimental cognitive science has contributed to this effort by eliciting in the lab constraints likely playing a role for language emergence; constraints such as iterated transmission of communicative tokens between agents. Since such constraints played out over long phylogenetic time and involved vast populations, a crucial challenge for iterated language learning paradigms is to extend its limits. In the current approach we perform a multiscale quantification of kinematic changes of an evolving silent gesture system. Silent gestures consist of complex multi-articulatory movement that have so far proven elusive to quantify in a structural and reproducable way, and is primarily studied through human coders meticulously interpreting the referential content of gestures. Here we reanalyzed video data from a silent gesture iterated learning experiment (Motamedi et al. 2019), which originally showed increases in systematicity of gestural form over language transmissions. We applied a signal-based approach, first utilizing computer vision techniques to quantify kinematics from videodata. Then we performed a multiscale kinematic analysis showing that over generations of language users, silent gestures became more efficient and less complex in their kinematics. We further detect systematicity of the communicative tokens’s interrelations which proved itself as a proxy of systematicity obtained via human observation data. Thus we demonstrate the potential for a signal-based approach of language evolution in complex multi-articulatory gestures.

scholarly journals Multiscale kinematic analysis reveals structural properties of change in evolving manual languages in the lab

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Pouw ◽  
Mark Dingemanse ◽  
Yasamin Motamedi ◽  
Asli
Keyword(s):  
Computer Vision ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Kinematic Analysis ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Interdisciplinary Project ◽  
Articulatory Movement ◽  
Iterated Learning

Reverse engineering how language emerged is a daunting interdisciplinary project. Experimental cognitive science has contributed to this effort by eliciting in the lab constraints likely playing a role for language emergence; constraints such as iterated transmission of communicative tokens between agents. Since such constraints played out over long phylogenetic time and involved vast populations, a crucial challenge for iterated language learning paradigms is to extend its limits. In the current approach we perform a multiscale quantification of kinematic changes of an evolving silent gesture system. Silent gestures consist of complex multi-articulatory movement that have so far proven elusive to quantify in a structural and reproducable way, and is primarily studied through human coders meticulously interpreting the referential content of gestures. Here we reanalyzed video data from a silent gesture iterated learning experiment (Motamedi et al. 2019), which originally showed increases in systematicity of gestural form over language transmissions. We applied a signal-based approach, first utilizing computer vision techniques to quantify kinematics from videodata. Then we performed a multiscale kinematic analysis showing that over generations of language users, silent gestures became more efficient and less complex in their kinematics. We further detect systematicity of the communicative tokens’s interrelations which proved itself as a proxy of systematicity obtained via human observation data. Thus we demonstrate the potential for a signal-based approach of language evolution in complex multi-articulatory gestures.

scholarly journals Vocal plasticity in a reptile

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1855) ◽  
pp. 20170451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Brumm ◽  
Sue Anne Zollinger
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
High Amplitude ◽  
Vocal Plasticity ◽  
Lombard Effect ◽  
Gekko Gecko ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Signalling Systems

Sophisticated vocal communication systems of birds and mammals, including human speech, are characterized by a high degree of plasticity in which signals are individually adjusted in response to changes in the environment. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first evidence for vocal plasticity in a reptile. Like birds and mammals, tokay geckos ( Gekko gecko ) increased the duration of brief call notes in the presence of broadcast noise compared to quiet conditions, a behaviour that facilitates signal detection by receivers. By contrast, they did not adjust the amplitudes of their call syllables in noise (the Lombard effect), which is in line with the hypothesis that the Lombard effect has evolved independently in birds and mammals. However, the geckos used a different strategy to increase signal-to-noise ratios: instead of increasing the amplitude of a given call type when exposed to noise, the subjects produced more high-amplitude syllable types from their repertoire. Our findings demonstrate that reptile vocalizations are much more flexible than previously thought, including elaborate vocal plasticity that is also important for the complex signalling systems of birds and mammals. We suggest that signal detection constraints are one of the major forces driving the evolution of animal communication systems across different taxa.

scholarly journals PEMAKAIAN BILINGUALISME DALAM INTERAKSI SISWA DI KELAS RENDAH DI MADRASAH IBTIDAIYAH NEGERI SINGARAJA BALI

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siti Rahmi
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Social Domain ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Everyday Language ◽  
Fifth Generation ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
Bahasa Indonesia

   Abstrak Pemakaian Bilingualisme dalam Interaksi Siswa di Kelas Rendah di Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri Singaraja Bali. Tulisan ini mengungkapkan realitas dari implikasi bilingualisme dalam pendidikan dasar. Konteksnya tidak hanya memperhatikan pembelajaran bahasa, tetapi terhadap pendidikan dalam arti luas. Hal ini karena bilingualisme <<memaksa>> para guru untuk mempertimbangkan pengajaran bahasa dalam pembelajaran di kelas. Umumnya, siswa dari Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri Singaraja Bali -Sekolah Dasar Islam- memiliki latar belakang bahasa Indonesia (L1). Bahasa Indonesia digunakan dengan berbagai dialek dan kosa kata bahasa Bali. Penggunaan bahasa Indonesia sebagai bahasa sehari-hari mereka disebabkan orang tua mereka berasal dari latar belakang lingkungan dan masyarakat multi-etnis. Orang tua mereka adalah generasi keempat dan kelima dari nenek moyang mereka, dan hampir tidak menggunakan bahasa asli mereka dalam ranah keluarga. Para keluarga migran ini sebagian besar adalah pedagang, buruh, dan beberapa dari mereka adalah PNS. Bahasa Bali, sebagai L2 diperoleh dalam lingkungan sosial terutama di sekolah menengah. Implikasi dari Bahasa Indonesia sebagai bahasa pengajaran lebih “mendidik-akomodatif”, disesuaikan dengan latar belakang bahasa siswa dan tingkat perkembangan bahasanya.Kata kunci: bilingualisme, implikasi, bahasa, pembelajaran     Abstract Bilingualism Implications in Primary Classroom Interactive Students of Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri Singaraja Bali. This paper reveals the reality of these implications. Its context does not concern only in the language learning, but into the education in broadest sense also. It is because bilingualism “force” teachers to consider language teaching in the classroom instruction. Generally, students of Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri Singaraja Bali-as an Islamic Primary School- have Indonesian language background (L1). Indonesian language used with various dialects of Balinese language and its vocabulary. The use of Indonesian as their everyday language is caused their parents from neighborhood background and the multi-ethnic milieu. Their parents are fourth and fifth generation of their forefather, and almost had not used their native language in family domain. The migrant families were mostly traders, laborers, and some of them are civil servants. Balinese language, as L2 acquired in social domain especially in secondary scholl. The implication of Indonesian as language teaching more “educative-accommodative”; adjusted by students’s language background and their level of language development.Keywords: bilingualism, implication, language, learning    

On Language Design

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Yang
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Language Design ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Innate Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Of Language

Summary. How the current study impacts traditional problems in linguistics, and how it leads to a simplification of the theory of UG and language learning, with a reduced role for domain-specific innate knowledge of language, leading to an arguably more plausible solution to the problem of language evolution.

scholarly journals Compositional Hierarchical Structure Evolves through Cultural Transmission: An Experimental Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Saldana ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Robert Truswell ◽  
Kenny Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Linguistics ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Iterated Learning

AbstractCompositional hierarchical structure is a prerequisite for productive languages; it allows language learners to express and understand an infinity of meanings from finite sources (i.e., a lexicon and a grammar). Understanding how such structure evolved is central to evolutionary linguistics. Previous work combining artificial language learning and iterated learning techniques has shown how basic compositional structure can evolve from the trade-off between learnability and expressivity pressures at play in language transmission. In the present study we show, across two experiments, how the same mechanisms involved in the evolution of basic compositionality can also lead to the evolution of compositional hierarchical structure. We thus provide experimental evidence showing that cultural transmission allows advantages of compositional hierarchical structure in language learning and use to permeate language as a system of behaviour.

scholarly journals Language evolution and climate: the case of desiccation and tone

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb Everett ◽  
Damián E. Blasí ◽  
Seán G. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Global Distribution ◽  
Testable Hypothesis ◽  
Standard Assumption ◽  
Vocal Cords ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Work First

Abstract We make the case that, contra standard assumption in linguistic theory, the sound systems of human languages are adapted to their environment. While not conclusive, this plausible case rests on several points discussed in this work: First, human behavior is generally adaptive and the assumption that this characteristic does not extend to linguistic structure is empirically unsubstantiated. Second, animal communication systems are well known to be adaptive within species across a variety of phyla and taxa. Third, research in laryngology demonstrates clearly that ambient desiccation impacts the performance of the human vocal cords. The latter point motivates a clear, testable hypothesis with respect to the synchronic global distribution of language types. Fourth, this hypothesis is supported in our own previous work, and here we discuss new approaches being developed to further explore the hypothesis. We conclude by suggesting that the time has come to more substantively examine the possibility that linguistic sound systems are adapted to their physical ecology.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document