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Language acquisition is supported by an ability called phonological awareness, which allows children to become intentionally aware of phonological units. It is known that erroneous pronunciation appears during the formation of phonological awareness. To clarify children&#39;s internal processes during this formation, this research aims to examine the factors that correct an erroneous phonological generation process. To do this, we utilized the innate and experiential factors of the memory retrieval mechanism in the cognitive architecture ACT-R. Specifically, we performed simulations to examine the interaction tasks that contribute to the acquisition of phonological awareness. As a result, it was shown that repeating a single task causes incorrect convergence and that this convergence can be prevented by performing other kinds of learning between tasks. In the future, it will be necessary to examine learning between tasks that can be associated with real situations and to confirm the overall process of phonological awareness formation.

CogSci 2021

Simulating the factors that correct the erroneous process of phonological generation in Japanese

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The 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2024) will take place in Bangkok, Thailand from August 11th to 16th, 2024. More information will be announced soon.

Language acquisition is supported by an ability called phonological awareness, which allows children to become intentionally aware of phonological units. It is known that erroneous pronunciation appears during the formation of phonological awareness. To clarify children's internal processes during this formation, this research aims to examine the factors that correct an erroneous phonological generation process. To do this, we utilized the innate and experiential factors of the memory retrieval mechanism in the cognitive architecture ACT-R. Specifically, we performed simulations to examine the interaction tasks that contribute to the acquisition of phonological awareness. As a result, it was shown that repeating a single task causes incorrect convergence and that this convergence can be prevented by performing other kinds of learning between tasks. In the future, it will be necessary to examine learning between tasks that can be associated with real situations and to confirm the overall process of phonological awareness formation.

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**Dear Colleagues,**

Welcome to the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society! 

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The Cognitive Science Society brings together researchers from around the world who hold a common goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. The mission of the Society is to promote Cognitive Science as a discipline, and to foster scientific interchange among researchers in various areas of study, including Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Education. The Society is a non-profit professional organization and its activities include sponsoring an annual conference and publishing the journals Cognitive Science and TopiCS.

Evidence shows comparing events helps children learn verbs (e.g., Childers et al., 2016), but studies are needed to understand whether event type is important. Study 1 examines two types of experiences during learning: seeing similar events than varied, or all varied events. Two½-(n=22), 3½-(n=20) and 4½-year-olds(n=14) learned 4 novel verbs. BS:similar events first or all varied events; pointed at test. A 3(Age: 2,3,4 years) x 2(Condition: similar,varied) univariate ANOVA,dv=proportion correct, showed main effect of Age, F(2, 55)= 7.6, p=.001 only. All children succeeded (one sample t-tests,ps< .03), whereas in a prior study, younger children failed. A second study confirms these results with a different set of video events, and events separated by 1-minute distractors. Here, only 2½- and 3½-year-olds who saw similar events extended verbs,perhaps because events were separated in time. These studies show that verb learners can benefit from comparing events, and comparing similar events can be especially useful.

Verb learning in young children: Are types of comparisons important?

Syntactic priming may be a key mechanism underlying children’s learning of novel words. Havron et al. (2019) exposed French-speaking children (ages 3 to 4) to a speaker biased by the use of either familiar verbs or nouns presented in the same syntactic context. This influenced participants’ interpretations of ambiguous novel words presented in the same syntactic frame. In Experiment 1, we successfully replicated Havron et al. with 77 French-speaking adults, using a web-based eye-tracking paradigm. Experiment 2 adapted this paradigm to English: Repeated exposure to a syntactic structure induced 102 English-speaking adults to update their expectations about the meanings of novel words. Our results indicate participants adapted to the specific linguistic structure used, not just the speaker’s tendency to mention actions or objects. These findings support the role of rapid adaptation during word learning. Experiments in progress investigate whether the English paradigm yields successful learning in 3- to 5-year-old children.

Syntactic adaptation and word learning in French and English

The purpose of this study is to capture the structure of the interactive role-making process and introduce an integrated perspective to view actors’ creativity in the process. In particular, this study focuses on the characteristics of utterances in an acting training, which emphasizes paying attention to a partner and communicating. Statistical analyses are conducted on temporal changes, individual differences, and the granularity of utterances. The influence of attention toward partners on utterances is discussed, as well as the possible internal changes of actors, which reflects a perspective from which to view creative action as is referred to in the five A’s framework. In addition, by applying the theory of constructed emotion, the present study attempts to provide a possible demonstration of how truthful emotion is born under imaginary settings in acting.

Emotion Expression Captured by Utterances in Acting and Underpinning Internal Changes in Actors

Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation (ZLA) states that the more frequently a word is used, the shorter its length tends to be. This arises due to the optimal trade-off between competing pressures for accuracy and efficiency in communication, known as the Principle of Least Effort. Existing research has not focused on how individuals adapt their language use to remain optimal despite language change and whether social factors like common ground affect this. To investigate this, we replicated and extended the artificial language learning paradigm and communication game of Kanwal et al. (2017). We found participants were able to re-optimize their language use according to ZLA after a language change event, but this ability was hampered by common ground. This research identifies common ground as one potential cause for observed sub-optimalities in human languages and may have implications for understanding the dynamics of language change across communities where common ground varies.

Zipf's law of abbreviation and common ground: Past communicative success hampers the re-optimization of language

Language guides how we conceptualize the level of detail in categorical spatial relations (Bowerman, 1996; Choi, 2006). This study examined whether details in different dimensions (i.e., distance and direction) given in spatial descriptions vary as a function of spatial categories. We asked Turkish speaking participants (N=40) to describe the spatial relation between two geometric objects aligned either on the horizontal or the vertical axis. There were three relations (on/above, under/below, next to/near) of which the direction (left, right) and the distance (adjacent, 5 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm) varied equally. More detailed descriptions in terms of direction and distance were provided for ‘next to/near’ compared to ‘on/above’ and ‘under/below’ relations. These results suggest an asymmetry between vertical and horizontal axes. Sensitivity for detailed descriptions along the horizontal axis may relate to language-specific spatial categorization.

The asymmetry between descriptions of vertical and horizontal spatial relations

Infants have been shown to be particularly adept at extracting so-called non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) from auditory linguistic input (for a review, cf. Mueller, Milne, & Männel, 2018). Mueller, Friederici & Männel (2012) showed that 3-4 month-olds readily learn arbitrary associations between specific non-adjacent syllables from an artificial language (e.g. fikato) and related this ability to individual differences in pitch processing. Here, we addressed the question whether syllables are the building block NAD learning operates on, or whether smaller segmental units also allow for such structural generalizations (Nespor, Peña, & Mehler, 2003). In an oddball paradigm, 8-10-months-olds showed a differential ERP response to standard (e.g. bokäwu, liwase) and deviant (e.g. sogäle, kisüru) exemplars of an exclusively vowel-based NAD, and to an intensity manipulation. Implications of successful rule generalization from this smaller segmental unit and its relation to auditory sensory processing are discussed.

8-10 months old infants extract non-adjacent dependencies from segmental information

Studies of the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) have been influential in arguing for the direct-access model of retrieval in sentence processing. The direct-access model assumes that long-distance dependencies rely on a content-addressable search for the correct representation in memory. Here, we address two important weaknesses in the statistical methods standardly used for analysing SAT data. First, these methods are based on non-hierarchical modelling. We show how a hierarchical model can be fit to SAT data, and we test parameter recovery in this more conservative model. The parameters most relevant to the direct-access account cannot be accurately estimated, and we attribute this to the standard SAT model being overparameterised for the limited data available to fit it. Second, the power properties of SAT studies are unknown. We conduct a power analysis and show that inferences from null results to the null hypothesis, though commonplace in the SAT literature, may be unwarranted.

Statistical properties of the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) paradigm in sentence processing

A considerable amount of cognition is, in some way, social. Here we consider one example: our reliance upon experts for information about phenomenon within a particular domain. Novices and experts share some knowledge within a domain in question which is crucial for knowing when to seek expert advice and how to evaluate that advice. Just when we decide to relinquish our own knowledge or skill in deference to an expertise remains an important question for cognitive scientists. Here we explored some conditions that might influence when we choose to defer to experts. In two experiments (N=570) we demonstrated that participants have a greater willingness to defer when experts have provide descriptive information (i.e., facts) about their domain of expertise, than when they provide prescriptive advice about what we ought to do with those facts. We interpret these results from the perspective that individuals exercise greater vigilance when given prescriptive advice in the form of normative statements. From this perspective individuals feel threatened, and therefore are less deferential, when experts tell them what to do, rather than share knowledge with them.

What we ought to do is…’: Are we More Willing to Defer to Experts who Provide Descriptive Facts Than Those who Offer Prescriptive Advice?

Does playing Chess improve reading, writing, speaking, and listening skill, the components of Linguistic Intelligence? The ability to manipulate syntax, phonetics, pragmatics, and semantics of the language is defined as Linguistic Intelligence. The experimental group underwent Chess training once a week, through the year (around 25 to 30 sessions), as part of co-curricular school activity. ANCOVA showed significant gains in Verbal Reasoning (an integral part of Linguistic Intelligence) for the experimental group than the control group who were involved in other extra-curricular activities. The study used pretest–posttest with control group design with WISC IV India and Binet Kamat Test of Intelligence for the assessment. 70 children in the experimental group and 81 children in the control group were randomly selected from four schools of both genders in the age group of 5 -16. Results indicate enhanced Linguistic Intelligence, which could also lead to improved communication, critical and analytical skills.

AUGMENTING LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE THROUGH CHESS TRAINING - AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

How many rhymes are possible in English? How much alliteration or assonance? This paper explores the space of common phonologically driven poetic devices. I investigate instances of these poetic devices across unique words in the dictionary, assuming perfect matching in relevant corresponding elements of word pairs. Documenting the frequencies of poetic device matches across words provides a baseline for understanding the diversity and use of these forms in the wild. It also allows us to describe the distribution of words across these patterns within each poetic device. We show that certain devices, such as alliteration and stress, support a relatively small number of unique phonological patterns, providing more consolidated and predictable resources than other devices. Forms like masculine and feminine rhyme, assonance, and consonance display relatively more sound patterns respectively, and unique words are distributed across them differently. These results are discussed in terms of their poetic and cognitive implications.

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Verb learning in young children: Are types of comparisons important?

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