CAREER: Infants' Statistical Learning of Systems with Multiple Levels of Organization

职业：婴儿对多层次组织系统的统计学习

• 批准号: 0642415
• 负责人: Erik Thiessen
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-15 至 2012-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0642415&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Infants; Statistical; Learning; Systems

Languages have multiple levels of statistical structure. Certain sounds tend to co-occur in forming words (like the ''st'' sounds in ''stop'' and ''list''), certain words tend to appear together in forming phrases, and so on. It is well-established that infants and children learn these statistics (with apparent ease) in the course of learning their languages, but how these statistics contribute to language learning is an ongoing area of research. The answer to this question is key to understanding the human capacity for language. With support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Thiessen is investigating how infants discover the statistical information available in their linguistic environments. His hypothesis is that the statistics learned at one level of language structure (sounds, for example) are used to facilitate the learning of language structures at other levels (words and phrases, for example). To investigate this hypothesis, Dr. Thiessen is conducting a number of laboratory experiments that test the statistical learning abilities of infants and toddlers. Student research training will include a new class-based initiative in which undergraduates work in the community to provide education on language development to parents and daycare centers. The knowledge gained may suggest more effective ways of teaching second languages to adults, and better remediation techniques for children with developmental disorders that impede language learning.

语言具有多层次的统计结构。 某些声音倾向于在形成单词时共同出现（如“stop "和”list“中的”st"音），某些单词倾向于在形成短语时一起出现，等等。婴儿和儿童在学习语言的过程中学习这些统计数据（显然很容易）是公认的，但这些统计数据如何有助于语言学习是一个正在进行的研究领域。 这个问题的答案是理解人类语言能力的关键。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Thiessen博士正在研究婴儿如何发现他们语言环境中可用的统计信息。 他的假设是，在语言结构的一个层次（例如声音）学习的统计数据被用来促进其他层次（例如单词和短语）的语言结构的学习。 为了研究这一假设，蒂森博士正在进行一系列实验室实验，测试婴儿和幼儿的统计学习能力。 学生研究培训将包括一个新的基于班级的举措，其中本科生在社区工作，为家长和日托中心提供语言发展教育。 所获得的知识可能会建议更有效的方法来教成人第二语言，以及更好的补救技术，为儿童发育障碍，阻碍语言学习。