23 research outputs found
What Makes a Language Easy to Deep-Learn?
Neural networks drive the success of natural language processing. A
fundamental property of language is its compositional structure, allowing
humans to produce forms for new meanings systematically. However, unlike
humans, neural networks notoriously struggle with systematic generalization,
and do not necessarily benefit from compositional structure in emergent
communication simulations. This poses a problem for using neural networks to
simulate human language learning and evolution, and suggests crucial
differences in the biases of the different learning systems. Here, we directly
test how neural networks compare to humans in learning and generalizing
different input languages that vary in their degree of structure. We evaluate
the memorization and generalization capabilities of a pre-trained language
model GPT-3.5 (analagous to an adult second language learner) and recurrent
neural networks trained from scratch (analaogous to a child first language
learner). Our results show striking similarities between deep neural networks
and adult human learners, with more structured linguistic input leading to more
systematic generalization and to better convergence between neural networks and
humans. These findings suggest that all the learning systems are sensitive to
the structure of languages in similar ways with compositionality being
advantageous for learning. Our findings draw a clear prediction regarding
children's learning biases, as well as highlight the challenges of automated
processing of languages spoken by small communities. Notably, the similarity
between humans and machines opens new avenues for research on language learning
and evolution.Comment: 32 pages, major update: improved text, added new analyses, added
supplementary materia
What's your point? Insights from virtual reality on the relation between intention and action in the production of pointing gestures
Human communication involves the process of translating intentions into communicative actions. But how exactly do our intentions surface in the visible communicative behavior we display? Here we focus on pointing gestures, a fundamental building block of everyday communication, and investigate whether and how different types of underlying intent modulate the kinematics of the pointing hand and the brain activity preceding the gestural movement. In a dynamic virtual reality environment, participants pointed at a referent to either share attention with their addressee, inform their addressee, or get their addressee to perform an action. Behaviorally, it was observed that these different underlying intentions modulated how long participants kept their arm and finger still, both prior to starting the movement and when keeping their pointing hand in apex position. In early planning stages, a neurophysiological distinction was observed between a gesture that is used to share attitudes and knowledge with another person versus a gesture that mainly uses that person as a means to perform an action. Together, these findings suggest that our intentions influence our actions from the earliest neurophysiological planning stages to the kinematic endpoint of the movement itself
What makes a language easy to learn? A preregistered study on how systematic structure and community size affect language learnability
Cross-linguistic differences in morphological complexity could have important consequences for language learning. Specifically, it is often assumed that languages with more regular, compositional, and transparent grammars are easier to learn by both children and adults. Moreover, it has been shown that such grammars are more likely to evolve in bigger communities. Together, this suggests that some languages are acquired faster than others, and that this advantage can be traced back to community size and to the degree of systematicity in the language. However, the causal relationship between systematic linguistic structure and language learnability has not been formally tested, despite its potential importance for theories on language evolution, second language learning, and the origin of linguistic diversity. In this pre-registered study, we experimentally tested the effects of community size and systematic structure on adult language learning. We compared the acquisition of different yet comparable artificial languages that were created by big or small groups in a previous communication experiment, which varied in their degree of systematic linguistic structure. We asked (a) whether more structured languages were easier to learn; and (b) whether languages created by the bigger groups were easier to learn. We found that highly systematic languages were learned faster and more accurately by adults, but that the relationship between language learnability and linguistic structure was typically non-linear: high systematicity was advantageous for learning, but learners did not benefit from partly or semi-structured languages. Community size did not affect learnability: languages that evolved in big and small groups were equally learnable, and there was no additional advantage for languages created by bigger groups beyond their degree of systematic structure. Furthermore, our results suggested that predictability is an important advantage of systematic structure: participants who learned more structured languages were better at generalizing these languages to new, unfamiliar meanings, and different participants who learned the same more structured languages were more likely to produce similar labels. That is, systematic structure may allow speakers to converge effortlessly, such that strangers can immediately understand each other
Elephants as an animal model for self-domestication
Humans are unique in their sophisticated culture and societal structures, their complex languages, and their extensive tool use. According to the human self-domestication hypothesis, this unique set of traits may be the result of an evolutionary process of self-induced domestication, in which humans evolved to be less aggressive and more cooperative. However, the only other species that has been argued to be self-domesticated besides humans so far is bonobos, resulting in a narrow scope for investigating this theory limited to the primate order. Here, we propose an animal model for studying self-domestication: the elephant. First, we support our hypothesis with an extensive cross-species comparison, which suggests that elephants indeed exhibit many of the features associated with self-domestication (e.g., reduced aggression, increased prosociality, extended juvenile period, increased playfulness, socially regulated cortisol levels, and complex vocal behavior). Next, we present genetic evidence to reinforce our proposal, showing that genes positively selected in elephants are enriched in pathways associated with domestication traits and include several candidate genes previously associated with domestication. We also discuss several explanations for what may have triggered a self-domestication process in the elephant lineage. Our findings support the idea that elephants, like humans and bonobos, may be self-domesticated. Since the most recent common ancestor of humans and elephants is likely the most recent common ancestor of all placental mammals, our findings have important implications for convergent evolution beyond the primate taxa, and constitute an important advance toward understanding how and why self-domestication shaped humans’ unique cultural niche
Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower, higher, and use more stable pitches than speech: a registered report
Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conversational speech, and instrumental melodies from our 75 coauthors speaking 55 languages; and (ii) 418 previously published adult-directed song and speech recordings from 209 individuals speaking 16 languages. Of our six preregistered predictions, five were strongly supported: Relative to speech, songs use (i) higher pitch, (ii) slower temporal rate, and (iii) more stable pitches, while both songs and speech used similar (iv) pitch interval size and (v) timbral brightness. Exploratory analyses suggest that features vary along a “musi-linguistic” continuum when including instrumental melodies and recited lyrics. Our study provides strong empirical evidence of cross-cultural regularities in music and speech
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Language Evolution in the Lab: The Case of Child Learners
Recent work suggests that cultural transmission can lead to
the emergence of linguistic structure as speakers’ weak
individual biases become amplified through iterated learning.
However, to date, no published study has demonstrated a
similar emergence of linguistic structure in children. This gap
is problematic given that languages are mainly learned by
children and that adults may bring existing linguistic biases to
the task. Here, we conduct a large-scale study of iterated
language learning in both children and adults, using a novel,
child-friendly paradigm. The results show that while children
make more mistakes overall, their languages become more
learnable and show learnability biases similar to those of
adults. Child languages did not show a significant increase in
linguistic structure over time, but consistent mappings
between meanings and signals did emerge on many
occasions, as found with adults. This provides the first
demonstration that cultural transmission affects the languages
children and adults produce similarly
The role of social network structure in the emergence of linguistic structure
Rmarkdown file and the needed Rdata file for performing all analyses reported in the submission: "The role of social network structure in the emergence of linguistic structure"
Larger communities create more systematic languages
Rmarkdown file and the needed Rdata file for performing all analyses reported in the submission: "Larger communities create more systematic languages": https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.126