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Competition and Symmetry in an Artificial Word Learning Task
Brian Buccola1, Isabelle Dautriche2, Emmanuel Chemla1
1Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (ENS, EHESS, CNRS), Département d'Études Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France.
Frontiers in Psychology
|December 18, 2018
Summary
Language involves competition, where chosen sentences activate alternatives. Symmetric alternatives can cancel each other out, reducing inferences, as shown in a word learning experiment.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Computational Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Natural language understanding involves pragmatic inference.
- Uttered sentences activate alternative, unuttered meanings, typically inferred as false.
- Competition between linguistic alternatives influences pragmatic inference.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of competition in natural language.
- To test the hypothesis that symmetric alternatives cancel inferences.
- To establish a minimal paradigm for studying linguistic competition.
Main Methods:
- An artificial word learning experiment was designed.
- Participants learned novel words that competed with each other.
- Behavioral data were collected to analyze inference patterns.
Main Results:
- Evidence for a competition mechanism in language learning was observed.
- The predicted cancellation of inferences by symmetric alternatives was confirmed.
- The number of inferences was not strictly proportional to the number of alternatives.
Conclusions:
- Linguistic competition is a fundamental aspect of language processing.
- Symmetry plays a crucial role in modulating pragmatic inferences.
- The findings offer insights into human language and potentially other cognitive domains.
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