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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

Human Information Processing Shapes Language Change.

Maryia Fedzechkina^1,2,3, Becky Chu⁴, T Florian Jaeger^4,5,6

¹1 Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona.

Psychological Science

|December 2, 2017

Summary

Human information processing biases shape language by favoring shorter grammatical dependencies. Learners of new languages restructure input to minimize dependency length, demonstrating a causal link between processing and linguistic diversity.

Keywords:

dependency length language evolution language processing language structure language universals learning biases open materials

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Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Science
Linguistic Diversity

Background:

Human languages display both diversity and commonalities.
Universal principles of human information processing may shape these commonalities.
Previous research suggests word order variations across languages minimize grammatical dependency length.

Purpose of the Study:

To directly test the causal link between human information processing biases and linguistic patterns.
To investigate whether learners restructure artificial languages to reduce dependency lengths.

Main Methods:

Learners were exposed to novel miniature artificial languages.
These languages featured unnecessarily long grammatical dependencies.
Learners' restructuring of the input was systematically analyzed.

Main Results:

Learners did not adhere to the surface word-order preferences of their native languages.
Learners actively restructured the artificial languages to shorten dependency lengths.
This restructuring indicates a preference for reduced processing load.

Conclusions:

Provides direct evidence for a causal relationship between individual processing preferences and language structure.
Suggests that cognitive biases play a crucial role in shaping linguistic diversity.
Highlights the adaptive nature of language learning in response to processing constraints.