Computational Modeling for Language Acquisition: A Tutorial With Syntactic Islands.

Purpose: Given the growing prominence of computational modeling in the acquisition research community, we present a tutorial on how to use computational modeling to investigate learning strategies that underlie the acquisition process. This is useful for understanding both typical and atypical lingu...

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Published in:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 58; no. 3; pp. 740 - 754
Main Authors: Pearl, Lisa S., Sprouse, Jon
Format: Article
Published: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Jun2015
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0362
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        atl: Computational Modeling for Language Acquisition: A Tutorial With Syntactic Islands.
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        au:
          Pearl, Lisa S.
          Sprouse, Jon
        affil:
          University of California, Irvine
          University of Connecticut, Storrs
      su:
        Language acquisition
        Computer simulation
        Child development
        Cognition
        Comparative grammar
        Judgment (Psychology)
        Linguistics
        Learning strategies
        Probability theory
        Learning theories in education
        Statistical models
      sug:
        subj:
          Language acquisition
          Computer simulation
          Child development
          Cognition
          Comparative grammar
          Judgment (Psychology)
          Linguistics
          Learning strategies
          Probability theory
          Learning theories in education
          Statistical models
      ab: Purpose: Given the growing prominence of computational modeling in the acquisition research community, we present a tutorial on how to use computational modeling to investigate learning strategies that underlie the acquisition process. This is useful for understanding both typical and atypical linguistic development. Method: We provide a general overview of why modeling can be a particularly informative tool and some general considerations when creating a computational acquisition model. We then review a concrete example of a computational acquisition model for complex structural knowledge referred to as syntactic islands. This includes an overview of syntactic islands knowledge, a precise definition of the acquisition task being modeled, the modeling results, and how to meaningfully interpret those results in a way that is relevant for questions about knowledge representation and the learning process. Conclusions: Computational modeling is a powerful tool that can be used to understand linguistic development. The general approach presented here can be used to investigate any acquisition task and any learning strategy, provided both are precisely defined.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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