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

语言有多个层次的统计结构。某些音往往在组成单词时同时出现（比如“stop”和“list”中的“st”音），某些词往往在组成短语时一起出现，等等。众所周知，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），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。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，泰森博士正在研究婴儿如何在他们的语言环境中发现可用的统计信息。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。为了调查这一假设，泰森博士正在进行一系列实验室实验，以测试婴幼儿的统计学学习能力。学生研究训练将包括一项新的以班级为基础的倡议，本科生在社区工作，为家长和日托中心提供语言发展方面的教育。所获得的知识可能会为成人提供更有效的第二语言教学方法，以及为阻碍语言学习的发育障碍儿童提供更好的补救技术。

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.