Syntagmatic paradigms: learning correspondence from contiguity

Smolek, Amy; Kapatsinski, Vsevolod

doi:10.1007/s11525-023-09411-w

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…In order to test if controlling for the salience of [i > tS] in edl simulations would predict the asymmetry between conditions, we reran the simulations, controlling for perceptual salience. We did this using a modified version of the Rescorla-Wagner function from Smolek and Kapatsinski (2023). This function allowed us to adjust the α-parameter for each bigram cue beforehand (see Eq.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differences in cue salience, for example, may affect the speed of learning, as association weights for more salient cues develop faster (Kapatsinski, 2023b;Miller, Barnet, & Grahame, 1995). Salience itself is also influenced by temporal order as temporally closer cues may also be more salient (Smolek & Kapatsinski, 2023). While such effects can be accounted for by adjusting the learning rate per cue, other salience effects are harder to deal with.…”

Section: Asymmetry Due To Salience Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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One Cue's Loss Is Another Cue's Gain—Learning Morphophonology Through Unlearning

Mujezinović,

Kapatsinski,

van de Vijver

2024

Cognitive Science

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A word often expresses many different morphological functions. Which part of a word contributes to which part of the overall meaning is not always clear, which raises the question as to how such functions are learned. While linguistic studies tacitly assume the co‐occurrence of cues and outcomes to suffice in learning these functions (Baer‐Henney, Kügler, & van de Vijver, 2015; Baer‐Henney & van de Vijver, 2012), error‐driven learning suggests that contingency rather than contiguity is crucial (Nixon, 2020; Ramscar, Yarlett, Dye, Denny, & Thorpe, 2010). In error‐driven learning, cues gain association strength if they predict a certain outcome, and they lose strength if the outcome is absent. This reduction of association strength is called unlearning. So far, it is unclear if such unlearning has consequences for cue–outcome associations beyond the ones that get reduced. To test for such consequences of unlearning, we taught participants morphophonological patterns in an artificial language learning experiment. In one block, the cues to two morphological outcomes—plural and diminutive—co‐occurred within the same word forms. In another block, a single cue to only one of these two outcomes was presented in a different set of word forms. We wanted to find out, if participants unlearn this cue's association with the outcome that is not predicted by the cue alone, and if this allows the absent cue to be associated with the absent outcome. Our results show that if unlearning was possible, participants learned that the absent cue predicts the absent outcome better than if no unlearning was possible. This effect was stronger if the unlearned cue was more salient. This shows that unlearning takes place even if no alternative cues to an absent outcome are provided, which highlights that learners take both positive and negative evidence into account—as predicted by domain general error‐driven learning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Asymmetry Due To Salience Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Cue's Loss Is Another Cue's Gain—Learning Morphophonology Through Unlearning

Mujezinović,

Kapatsinski,

van de Vijver

2024

Cognitive Science

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The “Starting-Small” Effect in Phonology: Evidence From Biased Learning of Opaque and Transparent Vowel Harmony

Chen

2024

Lang Speech

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The starting-small effect is a cognitive advantage in language acquisition when learners begin by generalizing on regularities from structurally simple and shorter tokens in a skewed input distribution. Our study explored this effect as a potential explanation for the biased learning of opaque and transparent vowel harmony. In opaque vowel harmony, feature agreement occurs strictly between adjacent vowels, and an intervening “neutral vowel” blocks long-distance vowel harmony. Thus, opaque vowel harmony could be acquired even if learners start with structurally simpler and more frequent disyllabic tokens. Alternatively, transparent vowel harmony can only be observed in longer tokens demonstrating long-distance agreement by skipping a neutral vowel. Opaque vowel harmony is predicted to be learned more efficiently due to its compatibility with local dependency acquired via starting-small learning. In two artificial grammar learning experiments, learners were exposed to both vowel harmony patterns embedded in an equal number of disyllabic and trisyllabic tokens or a skewed distribution with twice as many disyllabic tokens. In Exp I, learners’ test performance suggests the consistently biased learning of local and opaque vowel harmony with starting-small learning. Furthermore, in Exp II, the acquired vowel harmony patterns varied significantly by working memory capacity with a balanced but not skewed input distribution, presumably because of the ease of cognitive demand with starting-small learning.

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Tracking phonological regularities: exploring the influence of learning mode and regularity locus in adult phonological learning

Yu,

Van Hoey,

Tan

et al. 2024

Linguistics Vanguard

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Research on phonological learning has shown that adult learners are capable of effectively tracking regularities in phonological patterns. In our study, we investigated the dynamics of the learning process for regularity tracking. Adult learners participated in a phonological learning experiment where they acquired vowel harmony rules for forming plurals. The experiment had four conditions, varying in learning mode (goal-oriented vs. exploratory) and the locus of phonological regularity (phonotactics vs. alternation). When learners had no explicit learning goal and when the language involved random alternation patterns, their learning process showed a strong preference for regularity. This suggests that the application of statistical learning metrics is influenced by two factors: greater uncertainty in the exploratory conditions compared to the goal-oriented conditions, and a stronger inclination to avoid irregularities in alternation compared to phonotactics.

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Syntagmatic paradigms: learning correspondence from contiguity

Cited by 3 publications

References 117 publications

One Cue's Loss Is Another Cue's Gain—Learning Morphophonology Through Unlearning

One Cue's Loss Is Another Cue's Gain—Learning Morphophonology Through Unlearning

The “Starting-Small” Effect in Phonology: Evidence From Biased Learning of Opaque and Transparent Vowel Harmony

Tracking phonological regularities: exploring the influence of learning mode and regularity locus in adult phonological learning

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