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Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order

Human learning, although highly flexible and efficient, is constrained in ways that facilitate or impede the acquisition of certain systems of information. Some such constraints, active during infancy and childhood, have been proposed to account for the apparent ease with which typically developing...

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Autores principales: Nowak, Iga, Baggio, Giosuè
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5651074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29089910
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01816
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author Nowak, Iga
Baggio, Giosuè
author_facet Nowak, Iga
Baggio, Giosuè
author_sort Nowak, Iga
collection PubMed
description Human learning, although highly flexible and efficient, is constrained in ways that facilitate or impede the acquisition of certain systems of information. Some such constraints, active during infancy and childhood, have been proposed to account for the apparent ease with which typically developing children acquire language. In a series of experiments, we investigated the role of developmental constraints on learning artificial grammars with a distinction between shorter and relatively frequent words (‘function words,’ F-words) and longer and less frequent words (‘content words,’ C-words). We constructed 4 finite-state grammars, in which the order of F-words, relative to C-words, was either fixed (F-words always occupied the same positions in a string), flexible (every F-word always followed a C-word), or free. We exposed adults (N = 84) and kindergarten children (N = 100) to strings from each of these artificial grammars, and we assessed their ability to recognize strings with the same structure, but a different vocabulary. Adults were better at recognizing strings when regularities were available (i.e., fixed and flexible order grammars), while children were better at recognizing strings from the grammars consistent with the attested distribution of function and content words in natural languages (i.e., flexible and free order grammars). These results provide evidence for a link between developmental constraints on learning and linguistic typology.
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spelling pubmed-56510742017-10-31 Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order Nowak, Iga Baggio, Giosuè Front Psychol Psychology Human learning, although highly flexible and efficient, is constrained in ways that facilitate or impede the acquisition of certain systems of information. Some such constraints, active during infancy and childhood, have been proposed to account for the apparent ease with which typically developing children acquire language. In a series of experiments, we investigated the role of developmental constraints on learning artificial grammars with a distinction between shorter and relatively frequent words (‘function words,’ F-words) and longer and less frequent words (‘content words,’ C-words). We constructed 4 finite-state grammars, in which the order of F-words, relative to C-words, was either fixed (F-words always occupied the same positions in a string), flexible (every F-word always followed a C-word), or free. We exposed adults (N = 84) and kindergarten children (N = 100) to strings from each of these artificial grammars, and we assessed their ability to recognize strings with the same structure, but a different vocabulary. Adults were better at recognizing strings when regularities were available (i.e., fixed and flexible order grammars), while children were better at recognizing strings from the grammars consistent with the attested distribution of function and content words in natural languages (i.e., flexible and free order grammars). These results provide evidence for a link between developmental constraints on learning and linguistic typology. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5651074/ /pubmed/29089910 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01816 Text en Copyright © 2017 Nowak and Baggio. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Nowak, Iga
Baggio, Giosuè
Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order
title Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order
title_full Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order
title_fullStr Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order
title_full_unstemmed Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order
title_short Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order
title_sort developmental constraints on learning artificial grammars with fixed, flexible and free word order
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5651074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29089910
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01816
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