Second‐Order Correlation Learning of Dynamic Stimuli: Evidence from Infants and Computational Modeling

Abstract

We present two habituation experiments that examined 20‐ and 26‐month‐olds’ ability to engage in second‐order correlation learning for static and dynamic features, whereby learned associations between two pairs of features (e.g., P and Q, P and R) are generalized to the features that were not presented together (e.g., Q and R). We also present results from an associative learning mechanism that was implemented as an autoencoder parallel distributed processing (PDP) network in which second‐order correlation learning is shown to be an emergent property of the dynamics of the network. The experiments and simulation demonstrate that 20‐ and 26‐month‐olds as well as neural networks are capable of second‐order correlation learning in a category context for internal features of dynamic objects. However, the model predicts—and Experiment 3 demonstrates—that 20‐ and 26‐month‐olds are unable to encode second‐order correlations in a noncategory context for dynamic objects with internal features. It is proposed that the ability to learn second‐order correlations represents a powerful but as yet unexplored process for generalization in the first years of life.

Human Actions Support Infant Memory

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Moral masters or moral apprentices? A connectionist account of sociomoral evaluation in preverbal infants

“…We chose to implement our account in a connectionist network for two reasons. First, these models make minimal assumptions about the starting state of the infant and have shown that knowledge once taken to be innate can be learned based on experience with structured input and sufficient information-processing capacities (e.g., Rakison & Benton, 2019;Yermolayeva & Rakison, 2016). Second, we wished to demonstrate that an associative-learning mechanism can account for apparent sociomoral evaluation in preverbal infants.…”

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“…Children's developing information-processing abilities may also explain why secondorder correlation learning emerges at different ages in studies on this topic (e.g., Rakison & Benton, 2018;Yermolayeva & Rakison, 2016). For example, in Cuevas et al's (2006) study, 6month-olds showed second-order correlation learning but only after extended exposure to the stimuli.…”