Perceptual categories enable pattern generalization in songbirds.
Perceptual categories enable pattern generalization in songbirds.
复制标题
感知类别使鸣禽能够进行模式概括。
DOI：
10.1016/j.cognition.2013.03.014
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Gentner,TimothyQ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Comins,JordanA;Gentner,TimothyQ
自从乔姆斯基在句法结构方面的开创性工作以来，对语言进化研究感兴趣的比较心理学家将模式复杂性作为目标，使用形式数学语法，作为跨物种组织语言相关认知过程的关键。然而，这种对形式语法复杂性的关注往往忽略了模式结构与其组成元素之间在现实世界信号中的密切交互。自然听觉信号的这些特征是否具有形状模式的泛化性尚不清楚。在本文中，我们训练鸟类识别不同模式的自然信号串（歌曲母题）。我们不再关注显性强化模式的复杂性，而是探讨模式元素的感知分组如何影响泛化模式知识。我们发现，训练模式的学习和感知与潜在元素的感知特征是不可知的。然而，令人惊讶的是，这些相同的特征限制了模式知识的泛化，从而限制了模式知识的广泛使用。我们的研究结果表明，比较语言研究局限于句法复杂性的形式模型，充其量也不足以理解模式的使用。
Since Chomsky’s pioneering work on syntactic structures, comparative psychologists interested in the study of language evolution have targeted pattern complexity, using formal mathematical grammars, as the key to organizing language-relevant cognitive processes across species. This focus on formal syntactic complexity, however, often disregards the close interaction in real-world signals between the structure of a pattern and its constituent elements. Whether such features of natural auditory signals shape pattern generalization is unknown. In the present paper, we train birds to recognize differently patterned strings of natural signals (song motifs). Instead of focusing on the complexity of the overtly reinforced patterns, we ask how the perceptual groupings of pattern elements influence the generalization pattern knowledge. We find that learning and perception of training patterns is agnostic to the perceptual features of underlying elements. Surprisingly, however, these same features constrain the generalization of pattern knowledge, and thus its broader use. Our results demonstrate that the restricted focus of comparative language research on formal models of syntactic complexity is, at best, insufficient to understand pattern use.