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The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers

During language processing, humans form complex embedded representations from sequential inputs. Here, we ask whether a “geometrical language” with recursive embedding also underlies the human ability to encode sequences of spatial locations. We introduce a novel paradigm in which subjects are expos...

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Autores principales: Amalric, Marie, Wang, Liping, Pica, Pierre, Figueira, Santiago, Sigman, Mariano, Dehaene, Stanislas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5305265/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28125595
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005273
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author Amalric, Marie
Wang, Liping
Pica, Pierre
Figueira, Santiago
Sigman, Mariano
Dehaene, Stanislas
author_facet Amalric, Marie
Wang, Liping
Pica, Pierre
Figueira, Santiago
Sigman, Mariano
Dehaene, Stanislas
author_sort Amalric, Marie
collection PubMed
description During language processing, humans form complex embedded representations from sequential inputs. Here, we ask whether a “geometrical language” with recursive embedding also underlies the human ability to encode sequences of spatial locations. We introduce a novel paradigm in which subjects are exposed to a sequence of spatial locations on an octagon, and are asked to predict future locations. The sequences vary in complexity according to a well-defined language comprising elementary primitives and recursive rules. A detailed analysis of error patterns indicates that primitives of symmetry and rotation are spontaneously detected and used by adults, preschoolers, and adult members of an indigene group in the Amazon, the Munduruku, who have a restricted numerical and geometrical lexicon and limited access to schooling. Furthermore, subjects readily combine these geometrical primitives into hierarchically organized expressions. By evaluating a large set of such combinations, we obtained a first view of the language needed to account for the representation of visuospatial sequences in humans, and conclude that they encode visuospatial sequences by minimizing the complexity of the structured expressions that capture them.
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spelling pubmed-53052652017-03-03 The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers Amalric, Marie Wang, Liping Pica, Pierre Figueira, Santiago Sigman, Mariano Dehaene, Stanislas PLoS Comput Biol Research Article During language processing, humans form complex embedded representations from sequential inputs. Here, we ask whether a “geometrical language” with recursive embedding also underlies the human ability to encode sequences of spatial locations. We introduce a novel paradigm in which subjects are exposed to a sequence of spatial locations on an octagon, and are asked to predict future locations. The sequences vary in complexity according to a well-defined language comprising elementary primitives and recursive rules. A detailed analysis of error patterns indicates that primitives of symmetry and rotation are spontaneously detected and used by adults, preschoolers, and adult members of an indigene group in the Amazon, the Munduruku, who have a restricted numerical and geometrical lexicon and limited access to schooling. Furthermore, subjects readily combine these geometrical primitives into hierarchically organized expressions. By evaluating a large set of such combinations, we obtained a first view of the language needed to account for the representation of visuospatial sequences in humans, and conclude that they encode visuospatial sequences by minimizing the complexity of the structured expressions that capture them. Public Library of Science 2017-01-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5305265/ /pubmed/28125595 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005273 Text en © 2017 Amalric et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Amalric, Marie
Wang, Liping
Pica, Pierre
Figueira, Santiago
Sigman, Mariano
Dehaene, Stanislas
The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers
title The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers
title_full The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers
title_fullStr The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers
title_full_unstemmed The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers
title_short The language of geometry: Fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers
title_sort language of geometry: fast comprehension of geometrical primitives and rules in human adults and preschoolers
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5305265/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28125595
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005273
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