Infant artificial language learning and language acquisition. Gómez, R. L & Gerken, L. Trends Cogn Sci, 4(5):178-186, 2000.
abstract   bibtex   
The rapidity with which children acquire language is one of the mysteries of human cognition. A view held widely for the past 30 years is that children master language by means of a language-specific learning device. An earlier proposal, which has generated renewed interest, is that children make use of domain-general, associative learning mechanisms. However, our current lack of knowledge of the actual learning mechanisms involved during infancy makes it difficult to determine the relative contributions of innate and acquired knowledge. A recent approach to studying this problem exposes infants to artificial languages and assesses the resulting learning. In this article, we review studies using this paradigm that have led to a number of exciting discoveries regarding the learning mechanisms available during infancy. These studies raise important issues with respect to whether such mechanisms are general or specific to language, the extent to which they reflect statistical learning versus symbol manipulation, and the extent to which such mechanisms change with development. The fine-grained characterizations of infant learning mechanisms that this approach permits should result in a better understanding of the relative contributions of, and the dynamic between, innate and learned factors in language acquisition.
@Article{GomezGerkenTICS2000,
  author   = {Rebecca L G\'{o}mez and LouAnn Gerken},
  journal  = {Trends Cogn Sci},
  title    = {Infant artificial language learning and language acquisition.},
  year     = {2000},
  number   = {5},
  pages    = {178-186},
  volume   = {4},
  abstract = {The rapidity with which children acquire language is one of the mysteries
	of human cognition. A view held widely for the past 30 years is that
	children master language by means of a language-specific learning
	device. An earlier proposal, which has generated renewed interest,
	is that children make use of domain-general, associative learning
	mechanisms. However, our current lack of knowledge of the actual
	learning mechanisms involved during infancy makes it difficult to
	determine the relative contributions of innate and acquired knowledge.
	A recent approach to studying this problem exposes infants to artificial
	languages and assesses the resulting learning. In this article, we
	review studies using this paradigm that have led to a number of exciting
	discoveries regarding the learning mechanisms available during infancy.
	These studies raise important issues with respect to whether such
	mechanisms are general or specific to language, the extent to which
	they reflect statistical learning versus symbol manipulation, and
	the extent to which such mechanisms change with development. The
	fine-grained characterizations of infant learning mechanisms that
	this approach permits should result in a better understanding of
	the relative contributions of, and the dynamic between, innate and
	learned factors in language acquisition.},
  keywords = {Computing Methodologies, Human, Language, Learning, Mental Processes, Models, Theoretical, Stochastic Processes, Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Cognition, Linguistics, Neural Networks (Computer), Practice (Psychology), Non-U.S. Gov't, Memory, Psychological, Task Performance and Analysis, Time Factors, Visual Perception, Adult, Attention, Discrimination Learning, Female, Male, Short-Term, Mental Recall, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Perceptual Masking, Reading, Concept Formation, Form Perception, Animals, Corpus Striatum, Shrews, P.H.S., Visual Cortex, Visual Pathways, Acoustic Stimulation, Auditory Cortex, Auditory Perception, Cochlea, Ear, Gerbillinae, Glycine, Hearing, Neurons, Space Perception, Strychnine, Adolescent, Decision Making, Reaction Time, Astrocytoma, Brain Mapping, Brain Neoplasms, Cerebral Cortex, Electric Stimulation, Electrophysiology, Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe, Evoked Potentials, Frontal Lobe, Noise, Parietal Lobe, Scalp, Child, Language Development, Psycholinguistics, Brain, Perception, Speech, Vocalization, Animal, Discrimination (Psychology), Hippocampus, Rats, Calcium, Chelating Agents, Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials, Glutamic Acid, Guanosine Diphosphate, In Vitro, Neuronal Plasticity, Pyramidal Cells, Receptors, AMPA, Metabotropic Glutamate, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate, Somatosensory Cortex, Synapses, Synaptic Transmission, Thionucleotides, Action Potentials, Calcium Channels, L-Type, Electric Conductivity, Entorhinal Cortex, Neurological, Long-Evans, Infant, Mathematics, Statistics, Probability Learning, Problem Solving, Psychophysics, Association Learning, Child Psychology, Habituation (Psychophysiology), Probability Theory, Analysis of Variance, Semantics, Symbolism, Behavior, Eye Movements, Macaca mulatta, Prefrontal Cortex, Cats, Dogs, Haplorhini, Photic Stimulation, Electroencephalography, Nervous System Physiology, Darkness, Grasshoppers, Light, Membrane Potentials, Neural Inhibition, Afferent, Picrotoxin, Vision, Deoxyglucose, Injections, Microspheres, Neural Pathways, Rhodamines, Choice Behavior, Speech Perception, Verbal Learning, 10782103},
}

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