Predicting pragmatic cue integration in adults’ and children’s inferences about novel word meanings

Bohn, Manuel; Tessler, Michael Henry; Merrick, Megan; Frank, Michael C.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/xma4f

Cited by 8 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…For example, in a recent study with adults and children, we manipulated expectations about informativeness and common ground in a different way. 48 we also found a close alignment between model predictions and the data. The flexibility of this modeling framework stems from its conceptualization of human communication as a form of rational social action.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…It assumes that, while children's sensitivity to the individual information sources increases with age, the way integration proceeds remains constant. 7,48 In the model, this is accomplished by creating age-dependent parameters capturing developmental changes in sensitivity to speaker informativeness (α i , Fig. 1d), the common ground (ρ i , Fig.…”

Section: From Early In Development Children Use Several Different Mementioning

confidence: 99%

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How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words

Bohn¹,

Tessler²,

Merrick³

et al. 2020

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Before formal education begins, children typically acquire a vocabulary of thousands of words. This learning process requires the use of many different information sources in their social environment, including their current knowledge state as well as the context in which they hear words used. How is this information integrated? We specify a model according to which children consider all available information sources and integrate them via Bayesian inference. This model accurately predicted 2-to-5 year-old children’s word learning across a range of experimental conditions. Model comparison suggests that the integration process is stable across development and that the main locus of development is an increased sensitivity to individual information sources. We present a quantitative developmental theory of information integration for language learning, embedded in a larger framework that grounds language use and learning in social cognition.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: From Early In Development Children Use Several Different Mementioning

confidence: 99%

How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words

Bohn¹,

Tessler²,

Merrick³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, non-verbal aspects of the utterance (such as eye-gaze or gestures) can affect children's mutual exclusivity inferences [68][69][70][71][72] . As a first step in this direction, we recently studied how adults and children integrate non-verbal utterances with common ground 51 . Using a structurally similar rational-integration model, we also found a close alignment between model predictions and the data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the model presents an explicit and substantive theory of development. It assumes that, while children's sensitivity to the individual information sources increases with age, the way integration proceeds remains constant 7,51 . In the model, this is accomplished by creating age-dependent parameters capturing developmental changes in sensitivity to speaker informativeness (α i , Fig.…”

Section: How Young Children Integrate Information Sources To Infer the Meaning Of Wordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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Before formal education begins, children typically acquire a vocabulary of thousands of words. This learning process requires the use of many different information sources in their social environment, including their current state of knowledge and the context in which they hear words used. How is this information integrated? We specify a developmental model according to which children consider information sources in an age-specific way and integrate them via Bayesian inference. This model accurately predicted 2–5-year-old children’s word learning across a range of experimental conditions in which they had to integrate three information sources. Model comparison suggests that the central locus of development is an increased sensitivity to individual information sources, rather than changes in integration ability. This work presents a developmental theory of information integration during language learning and illustrates how formal models can be used to make a quantitative test of the predictive and explanatory power of competing theories.

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“…More recently, it has been used to predict how adults and children integrate different information sources to make inferences about what a speaker is referring to [54]. In one study, Bohn and colleagues [55] measured children's developing sensitivity to different information sources, for example, their linguistic knowledge or their sensitivity to common ground.…”

Section: Computational Models Of Linguistic Communication In Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great ape communication as contextual social inference: a computational modeling perspective

Bohn¹,

Liebal²,

Tessler³

2021

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Human communication has been described as a contextual social inference process. Research into great ape communication has been inspired by this view to look for the evolutionary roots of the social, cognitive, and interactional processes involved in human communication. This approach has been highly productive, yet it is often compromised by a too-narrow focus on how great apes use and understand individual signals. In this paper, we introduce a computational model that formalizes great ape communication as a multi-faceted social inference process that relies on information contained in the signal, the relationship between communicative partners, and the social context. This model makes accurate qualitative and quantitative predictions about real-world communicative interactions between semi-wild-living chimpanzees. When enriched with a pragmatic reasoning process, the model explains repeatedly reported differences between humans and great apes in the interpretation of ambiguous signals (e.g. pointing gestures). This approach has direct implications for observational and experimental studies of great ape communication and provides a new tool for theorizing about the evolution of uniquely human communication.

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Predicting pragmatic cue integration in adults’ and children’s inferences about novel word meanings

Cited by 8 publications

References 33 publications

How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words

How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words

How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words

Great ape communication as contextual social inference: a computational modeling perspective

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