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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Procedure for Adaptive Laboratory Evolution of Microorganisms Using a Chemostat

Procedure for Adaptive Laboratory Evolution of Microorganisms Using a Chemostat

Published on: September 20, 2016

Language evolution in the laboratory.

Thomas C Scott-Phillips¹, Simon Kirby

¹School of Psychology, Philosophy and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh EH89AD, UK. thom@ling.ed.ac.uk

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

|August 3, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers study language evolution through lab experiments observing new language emergence. This helps understand cognitive capacities and how individual behaviors shape population-level language phenomena, with future focus on information transmission effects.

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Area of Science:

Linguistics
Evolutionary Biology
Cognitive Science

Background:

The historical origins of natural language are not directly observable.
Studying language-supporting systems and developing models can explore hypotheses on language emergence.
Evolutionary linguistics now uses laboratory experiments to directly observe the emergence of new languages.

Purpose of the Study:

To directly observe and study the emergence of new languages in a controlled environment.
To investigate the cognitive capacities essential for language development.
To understand how individual behaviors lead to population-level linguistic phenomena.

Main Methods:

Conducting laboratory experiments with human participants to create and observe new languages.
Analyzing the emergence of linguistic structures and systems.
Modeling hypotheses about language origins and evolution.

Main Results:

Direct observation of new language emergence in laboratory settings is possible.
Experiments provide insights into the cognitive underpinnings of language.
The relationship between individual linguistic behavior and population-level language patterns can be studied.

Conclusions:

Laboratory experiments offer a direct window into language evolution.
Understanding the interplay between individual actions and collective linguistic outcomes is crucial.
Future research should focus on the impact of different information transmission methods on language evolution.