Learning mechanisms in language acquisition

语言习得的学习机制

• 批准号: 7068506
• 负责人: LouAnn Gerken
• 金额: $ 26.53万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-07-02 至 2009-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7068506
• 关键词: adult human (21+); auditory stimulus; behavior test; behavioral /social science research tag; clinical research; human subject; infant human (0-1 year); language development; language disorders; learning; memory; neural information processing; person with disability; response generalization; verbal behavior; visual stimulus

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 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 versus 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 three 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 versus inconsistent test items is taken as evidence of learning. Using this paradigm, the research compares learning across different input conditions (two formally identical language systems with different surface instantiations, formal systems that conform versus 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.

描述（由申请人提供）：过去50年对语言发展的研究揭示了年轻语言学习者的两种潜在的相互冲突的能力。一方面，婴儿对他们输入的特定表面特性及其统计数据非常敏感。另一方面，婴儿能够根据高度抽象的形式属性快速概括他们的输入。对表面和抽象语言属性的敏感性的相对重要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尝试，以确定语言学习者联合收割机如何结合他们的敏感性，语言的表面属性和他们的能力，抽象超越这些属性。根据本研究期间的研究，我们提出了以下三个假设：（1）记忆需求、任务需求和先前经验都会影响形式相同输入的抽象水平。 (2)语言学习者只形成了解释他们所遇到的数据集所必需的最抽象的表示。(3)在某些情况下，有轻微发展性语言障碍的成年人比有正常语言的成年人更不可能根据语言的抽象属性进行概括。 为了验证这些假设，参与者熟悉来自人工语言系统的刺激。然后，他们测试新的刺激，无论是一致的或不一致的特定属性的熟悉刺激研究。一致与不一致的测试项目的显着区别被视为学习的证据。 使用这种范式，该研究比较了不同输入条件（两个形式相同的语言系统，具有不同的表面实例，符合与不符合自然语言属性的形式系统）和不同人群（6至12个月大的婴儿，语言正常的成年人，语言能力受损的成年人）的学习。 这项研究的结果可能会揭示婴儿和成人在概括语言输入的细节时如何受到其影响的重要信息。这些发现也有可能为语言障碍中学习的作用提供新的见解。