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Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

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Published on: January 29, 2020

Knowledge and implicature: modeling language understanding as social cognition.

Noah D Goodman¹, Andreas Stuhlmüller

¹Department of Psychology, Stanford University, USA. ngoodman@stanford.edu

Topics in Cognitive Science

|January 22, 2013

Summary

Language understanding is linked to social cognition. Rational speech-act theory models how listeners infer speaker meaning using Bayesian inference, explaining scalar implicature and speaker knowledge effects.

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Last Updated: May 15, 2026

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Published on: October 13, 2018

Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Linguistics
Psychology

Background:

The relationship between language understanding and social cognition is debated.
Rational speech-act theory offers a formal framework to model pragmatic inference.
Scalar implicature, like 'some' implying 'not all', is a key area for testing pragmatic theories.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate if language understanding is a special case of social cognition.
To formalize and apply the rational speech-act theory to pragmatic phenomena.
To investigate the role of speaker knowledge in listener interpretation.

Main Methods:

Formalized the rational speech-act theory using Bayesian inference.
Modeled scalar implicature (e.g., 'some' -> 'not all') within this framework.
Conducted two experiments to test model predictions against human judgments.

Main Results:

The rational speech-act model successfully predicted listener interpretations of scalar implicatures.
An interaction between the speaker's knowledge state and the listener's interpretation was observed.
Experimental data showed a good fit with the model's predictions.

Conclusions:

Language understanding can be fruitfully modeled as a form of social cognition.
The rational speech-act theory provides a robust framework for understanding pragmatic inference.
Speaker knowledge state is a critical factor influencing how listeners interpret utterances.