Learning mechanisms in language acquisition

近50年来关于语言发展的研究在年轻的语言学习者中发现了两个， 潜在的冲突，能力。一方面，婴儿对特定的表面属性非常敏感 他们的投入和统计数字。另一方面，婴儿能够迅速地概括出他们的 基于高度抽象的形式属性的输入。表面敏感性与抽象敏感性的相对重要性 语言属性是关于人类语言本质的理论争论的核心。 这里提出的研究反映了我们正在进行的确定语言学习者如何结合的尝试 他们对语言表面属性的敏感性，以及他们超越这些属性进行抽象的能力。从… 在本期资助期间进行的研究，我们形成了以下3个假设： (1)记忆需求、任务需求和既往经验都会影响抽象水平 用于形式上相同的输入。(2)语言学习者只能形成必要的最抽象的表征 解释他们遇到的一组数据。(3)在某些情况下，成年人有微妙的 发育性语言障碍比语言正常的成年人更不可能根据 语言的抽象属性。 为了检验这些假设，参与者需要熟悉来自人工语言系统的刺激。 然后在新的刺激物上进行测试，这些刺激物与特定属性一致或不一致 正在研究的熟悉刺激。对一致性和不一致性测试项目的显著区分是 作为学习的证据。使用这种范式，研究人员比较了不同输入方式下的学习情况 条件(2个形式上相同的语言系统，具有不同的表面实例化，形式系统 符合与不符合自然语言的属性)和跨人群(6至12个月大的婴儿 婴儿、语言正常的成年人、语言能力受损的成年人)。这项研究的发现 可能会揭示有关婴儿和成年人如何受到他们的具体情况影响的重要信息 语言输入，因为他们超越了它的泛化。这些发现也有可能为以下方面提供新的见解 学习在语言障碍中的作用。

The last 50 years of research on language development have revealed in young language learners two, potential conflicting, abilities. On the one hand, infants are exquisitely sensitive to specific surface properties of their input and the statistics thereof. On the other hand, infants are able to rapidly generalize beyond their input based on highly abstract formal properties. The relative importance of sensitivity to surface vs. abstract linguistic properties is at the heart of theoretical debates about the nature of human language. The research proposed here reflects our ongoing attempt to determine how language learners combine their sensitivity to surface properties of language and their ability to abstract beyond these properties. From the research performed during the current period of funding, we have formed the following 3 hypotheses: (1) Memory demands, task demands and previous experience all influence the level of abstraction achieved for formally identical input. (2) Language learners form only the most abstract representation necessary to account for the set of data they have encountered. (3) Under some circumstances, adults with subtle developmental language disabilities are less likely than adults with normal language to generalize based on abstract properties of language. To test these hypotheses, participants are familiarized with stimuli from an artificial language-like system. They are then tested on new stimuli that are either consistent or inconsistent with the particular properties of the familiarization stimuli under study. Significant discrimination of consistent vs. inconsistent test items is taken as evidence of learning. Using this paradigm, the research compares learning across different input conditions (2 formally identical language systems with different surface instantiations, formal systems that conform vs. do not conform to properties of natural languages) and across populations (6- to -12-month-old infants, adults with normal language, adults with impaired language abilities). The findings from this research are likely to reveal important information about how infants and adults are influenced by the specifics of their language input as they generalize beyond it. The findings also have the potential to provide new insights into the role of learning in language disorders.