
The Library
Comparing generalisation in children and adults learning an artificial language
Tools
Wonnacott, Elizabeth, Brown, Helen and Nation, Kate (2013) Comparing generalisation in children and adults learning an artificial language. In: Child Language Seminar, Manchester, UK, 24-25 Jun 2013
|
Text (Conference poster)
WRAP_Wonnacott_comparing_2013_poster.pdf - Presentation Download (527Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/even...
Abstract
Successful language acquisition involves generalization, but learners must balance this against the acquisition of lexical constraints. Examples occur throughout language. For example, English native speakers know that certain noun-adjective combinations are impermissible (e.g., strong winds, high winds, strong breezes, *high breezes). Another example is the restrictions imposed by verb sub-categorization (e.g., I gave/sent/threw the
ball to him; I gave/sent/threw him the ball; I donated/carried/pushed the ball to him; * I
donated/carried/pushed him the ball; Baker, 1979). A central debate has been the extent
to which learning such patterns depends on semantic cues (Pinker, 1989) and/or distributional statistics (Braine et al., 1990). The current experiments extend previous work which used Artificial Language learning to
demonstrate that adults (Wonnacott et al., 2008) and 6 year olds (Wonnacott, 2011) are able to learn lexically based restrictions on generalization using distributional statistics.
Here we directly compare the two age groups learning the same artificial language, with a view to exploring maturational differences in language learning. In addition to manipulating frequency (across high and low frequency items) and quantity of exposure (across days),
languages were constructed such that a word’s semantic class was helpful for learning the restrictions for some types of lexical items, but potentially misleading for others.
Item Type: | Conference Item (Poster) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology P Language and Literature > PM Hyperborean, Indian, and Artificial languages |
||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Languages, Artificial -- Study and teaching -- Psychological aspects, Language acquisition, Language acquisition -- Age factors, Psycholinguistics | ||||
Official Date: | 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Conference Paper Type: | Poster | ||||
Title of Event: | Child Language Seminar | ||||
Type of Event: | Other | ||||
Location of Event: | Manchester, UK | ||||
Date(s) of Event: | 24-25 Jun 2013 |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
![]() |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year