Comparing infants' and adults' learning of three types of linguistic generalizations

这项研究解决了关于语言的两个谜题：只有人类才有语言，而在婴儿时期学习一门语言比成年后学习一门语言会产生更好的语言技能。学习一门语言需要发现一些规则，比如英语中的规则：名词结尾的复数要么听起来像“孩子”中的“z”，要么听起来像“Kits”中的“S”。简而言之，规则是：如果单词以浊辅音结尾，则添加“z”音(“d”由声带振动组成)，如果单词以清音辅音结尾，则添加“S”音(“t”没有声带振动)。11个月大的孩子可以从一门发明的语言中只用4个单词就学会一条“或”规则，但成年人即使从76个单词也不能学会这条规则。非人类动物，就像人类成年人一样，也不能学习视觉领域的OR规则(例如，按下按钮选择小的黑色正方形或大的白色三角形)。因此，婴儿擅长学习一种在人类语言中经常出现的规则，但成年人和动物不容易学习。理解婴儿为什么会如此容易地成功，有望揭示成年人和婴儿学习语言的不同之处，也许会让他们通过计算机学习更好的、婴儿式的语言。婴儿接触到一种发明的语言中的单词，这种语言反映了三种规则中的一种(OR规则或其他两种更容易被成年人和动物学习的规则)。通过测量他们对反映相同或不同规则的新单词的注意力来测试他们的规则学习。成年人在几种旨在改善OR规则学习的条件下接触到相同的单词。他们的规则学习是通过让他们根据新单词与他们刚刚听到的单词的相似性来评估的。

This research addresses two puzzles about language: Only humans have it, and learning a language as an infant results in better language skill than learning as an adult. Learning a language entails discovering rules, such as the English rule that the plural ending on nouns either sounds like "z" as in "kids" or like "s" as in "kits". In simplified terms, the rule is: add the "z" sound if the word ends in a voiced consonant ("d" is made with vocal cords vibrating) OR add the "s" sound if the word ends in a voiceless consonant (no vocal cord vibration for "t"). 11-month-olds can learn an "OR" rule from just 4 words of an invented language, but adults cannot learn the rule even from 76 words. Non-human animals, like human adults, also fail to learn OR rules in the visual domain (e.g., press the button for either small black squares OR large white triangles). Thus, infants are adept at learning a type of rule that is frequent in human language, but that adults and animals do not easily learn. Understanding why infants succeed so easily promises to reveal differences in how adults and infants learn language, and will perhaps allow superior, infant-like, language learning by computers.Infants are exposed to words from an invented language that reflects one of three types of rules (the OR rule or 2 other types that are more easily learned by adults and animals). Their rule learning is tested by measuring their attention to new words that reflect the same or a different rule. Adults are exposed to the same words under several conditions that are designed to improve learning of the OR rule. Their rule learning is tested by asking them to rate new words on their similarity to the words that they just heard.