Constraints on Learning from Inconsistent Input

从不一致的输入中学习的限制

• 批准号: 7029822
• 负责人: CARLA L HUDSON KAM
• 金额: $ 22.64万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-01 至 2010-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7029822
• 关键词: behavioral /social science research tag; child psychology; clinical research; developmental psychology; form /pattern perception; human subject; language development; middle childhood (6-11); nonEnglish language; preschool child (1-5); psychological aspect of aging; psychological tests; psychometrics; semantics; short term memory; university student; verbal learning

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): All human learners with normal cognitive capacities who are exposed to language input in childhood manage to acquire a language that looks very much like their input. However, at present we have little idea how, exactly, learners accomplish this feat. We have little understanding of the nature of the learning mechanisms that underlie and support language learning. This is the focus of the research in this proposal. Three general questions guide the research. (1) What are the constraints on language learning mechanisms? (2) Are the learning mechanisms involved in language acquisition specific to language or are they of a more general nature? (3) Do these mechanisms change over time as learners age, and if 'so, how? The proposed research examines these questions by investigating the learning of probabilistic and inconsistent patterns in the input using miniature artificial languages. This provides a rather unique view of the constraints on learning mechanisms, examining the limits of what can and cannot be learned. Previous work has shown that learners can acquire probabilistic patterns, however they sometimes impose consistency on variation. Moreover, children are more likely to change such patterns than are adults. The present research expands on the earlier results, asking about the nature of the interaction between learners and input. Series 1 asks about the nature of the input that makes some inconstancy learnable and some not. The studies examine the limits of veridical learning of inconsistent patterns in languages, asking questions about the specificity of computations learners can perform, the representations over which such computations can be performed, and the effect of prior domain-specific knowledge. Series 2 asks about the nature of the learner, asking why learners regularize over inconsistency at all. In particular, the studies examine whether working memory constraints, rather than constraints stemming directly from the learning mechanisms themselves, are an important factor influencing whether learners acquire the variation or instead impose regularity. Both series will be conducted with adults and children to examine how learning changes over development. Although the input in the proposed studies is somewhat atypical, the results from these studies will contribute to our understanding of the learning mechanisms involved in language acquisition more generally, and ultimately, this increases our understanding of both normal and disordered acquisition.

描述（由申请人提供）：所有具有正常认知能力的人类学习者，在童年时期接触语言输入，都能获得一种看起来非常像他们输入的语言。然而，目前我们还不知道学习者到底是如何完成这一壮举的。我们对语言学习的基础和支持的学习机制的本质知之甚少。这是本文研究的重点。三个一般性问题指导研究。(1)语言学习机制的制约因素是什么？(2)语言习得中的学习机制是语言特有的还是更普遍的？(3)随着学习者年龄的增长，这些机制会随着时间的推移而改变吗？拟议的研究探讨这些问题，通过调查学习的概率和不一致的模式，在输入使用微型人工语言。这为学习机制的限制提供了一个相当独特的视角，考察了什么可以学，什么不能学的限制。以前的工作表明，学习者可以获得概率模式，但他们有时会强加一致性的变化。此外，儿童比成人更有可能改变这种模式。本研究扩展了早期的结果，询问学习者和输入之间的互动的性质。系列1询问了输入的本质，它使得一些不稳定性是可学习的，而一些是不可学习的。这些研究考察了语言中不一致模式的真实学习的局限性，询问了学习者可以执行的计算的特殊性，可以执行这种计算的表示以及先前特定领域知识的影响。系列2探讨了学习者的本质，问为什么学习者要对不一致进行规则化。特别是，研究检查是否工作记忆的限制，而不是直接来自学习机制本身的限制，是一个重要的因素，影响学习者是否获得的变化，而是施加规律性。这两个系列将与成人和儿童一起进行，以研究学习如何随着发展而变化。尽管这些研究的结果有些非典型，但这些研究的结果将有助于我们更普遍地理解语言习得中涉及的学习机制，最终，这将增加我们对正常和无序习得的理解。