Unsupervised statistical learning in newly hatched chicks

Santolin, Chiara; Rosa‐Salva, Orsola; Vallortígara, Giorgio; Regolin, Lucia

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.011

Cited by 35 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…We have also tried to highlight the ways in which statistical learning abilities serve infants well, given the structure of the environment into which they are born. At least some of these abilities are observed in other species (e.g., Abe & Watanabe 2011, Santolin et al 2016, Toro & Trobalón 2005). Almost 50 years ago, Rescorla (1968) demonstrated that conditioning is actually dependent on more complicated factors than just contiguity of the pairing.…”

Section: Why Are We Statistical Learners?mentioning

confidence: 91%

Infant Statistical Learning

Saffran

Kirkham

2018

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

333

211

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Perception involves making sense of a dynamic, multimodal environment. In the absence of mechanisms capable of exploiting the statistical patterns in the natural world, infants would face an insurmountable computational problem. Infant statistical learning mechanisms facilitate the detection of structure. These abilities allow the infant to compute across elements in their environmental input, extracting patterns for further processing and subsequent learning. In this selective review, we summarize findings that show that statistical learning is both a broad and flexible mechanism (supporting learning from different modalities across many different content areas) and input specific (shifting computations depending on the type of input and goal of learning). We suggest that statistical learning not only provides a framework for studying language development and object knowledge in constrained laboratory settings, but also allows researchers to tackle real-world problems, such as multilingualism, the role of ever-changing learning environments, and differential developmental trajectories.

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Section: Why Are We Statistical Learners?mentioning

confidence: 91%

Infant Statistical Learning

Saffran

Kirkham

2018

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

333

211

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“…This can be done by recognizing the frequency with which groups of sounds occur in a given order, an ability shown by human infants and adults [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. However, this ability is not restricted to linguistic or even auditory input [ 13 , 14 , 15 ] and is shown also by nonhuman animals [ 3 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Likewise, other abilities necessary to the evolution and acquisition of linguistic syntax, investigated by studies that test humans’ and animals’ capability to recognize various kinds of regularities in the temporal order of a sequence of elements [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], are not restricted to language [ 28 , 29 , 30 ] or to humans [ 23 , 25 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous Learning of Visual Structures in Domestic Chicks

Rosa‐Salva

Fiser²,

Versace

et al. 2018

Animals

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Simple SummaryOur aim is to investigate the recognition of the structure of multi-element configurations; one mechanism that supports communicative functions in different species. Cognitive mechanisms involved in this ability might not have evolved specifically for communicative use, but derive from other functions. Thus, it is crucial to study these abilities in species that are not vocal learners and with stimuli from other modalities. We know already that domestic chicks can learn the temporal statistical structure of sequences of visual shapes, however their abilities to encode the spatial structure of visual patterns (configurations composed of multiple visual elements presented simultaneously side-by-side) is much less known. Using filial imprinting learning, we showed that chicks spontaneously recognize the structure of their imprinting stimulus, preferring it to one composed of the same elements in different configurations. Moreover, we found that in their affiliative responses chicks give priority to information located at the stimulus edges, a phenomenon that was so far observed only with temporal sequences. This first evidence of a spontaneous edge bias with spatial stimuli further stresses the importance of studying similarities and differences between the processing of linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli and of stimuli presented in various sensory modalities.AbstractEffective communication crucially depends on the ability to produce and recognize structured signals, as apparent in language and birdsong. Although it is not clear to what extent similar syntactic-like abilities can be identified in other animals, recently we reported that domestic chicks can learn abstract visual patterns and the statistical structure defined by a temporal sequence of visual shapes. However, little is known about chicks’ ability to process spatial/positional information from visual configurations. Here, we used filial imprinting as an unsupervised learning mechanism to study spontaneous encoding of the structure of a configuration of different shapes. After being exposed to a triplet of shapes (ABC or CAB), chicks could discriminate those triplets from a permutation of the same shapes in different order (CAB or ABC), revealing a sensitivity to the spatial arrangement of the elements. When tested with a fragment taken from the imprinting triplet that followed the familiar adjacency-relationships (AB or BC) vs. one in which the shapes maintained their position with respect to the stimulus edges (AC), chicks revealed a preference for the configuration with familiar edge elements, showing an edge bias previously found only with temporal sequences.

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“…In this brief tracking shot of biological predispositions, I have shown that imprinting is still instrumental in the study of aspects of chicks' cognition that are relevant to human cognition. Imprinting applies successfully to the investigation of perception, agent recognition, physical reasoning, and spatial reorientation (reviews in Vallortigara & Chiandetti, 2017), but also of numerical cognition (review in Vallortigara, 2017) and other forms of abstract learning (see, e.g., Santolin, Rosa-Salva, Vallortigara, & Regolin, 2016). Addressing of issues such as whether basic mechanisms in core domains of cognition are inborn is only possible in suitable animal models.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hier bin Ich: Wo bist Du?

Chiandetti

2018

Gestalt Theory

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Summary Since its first description, the imprinting phenomenon has been deeply investigated, and researchers can nowadays provide profound knowledge of its functioning. Here, I present how this peculiar form of early exposure learning can be used as a strategy to study animal cognition. Starting from imprinting as a social trigger for the domestic chick (Gallus gallus) and combining it with the unique possibility of accurate control of sensory experiences in this animal model, I present evidence that in artificial environments, imprinting serves as a rigorous test of the core domains of cognition. Whether basic cognitive concepts are already present at birth or whether they need extensive experience to develop are questions that can be addressed in precocial birds and still, following the tradition of the seminal works made by Lorenz, can inform on human cognitive processing.

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Unsupervised statistical learning in newly hatched chicks

Cited by 35 publications

References 8 publications

Infant Statistical Learning

Infant Statistical Learning

Spontaneous Learning of Visual Structures in Domestic Chicks

Hier bin Ich: Wo bist Du?

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