Naveen Khetarpal

It is widely held that children’s linguistic input underdetermines the correct grammar, and that language learning must therefore be guided by innate linguistic constraints. Here, we show that a Bayesian model can learn a standard poverty-of-stimulus example, anaphoric one, from realistic input by relying on indirect evidence, without a linguistic constraint assumed to be necessary. Our demonstration does, however, assume other linguistic knowledge; thus, we reduce the problem of learning anaphoric one to that of learning this other knowledge. We discuss whether this other knowledge may itself be acquired without linguistic constraints.

Color Naming is Near Optimal Terry Regier * (regier@uchicago.edu) Paul Kay † (paulkay@berkeley.edu) Naveen Khetarpal * (khetarpal@uchicago.edu) Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 S. University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 International Computer Science Institute, 1947 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704 discrete set of points in color space to one of the n categories; we then adjusted these category labels through steepest ascent in well-formedness, until a maximum was reached. The results are displayed in Figure 1, together with selected languages from the World Color Survey (WCS) database (Cook et al., 2005). Each color naming system is displayed on a standard color grid in which columns represent hues, and rows lightness. More broadly, we found that across the 110 languages of the WCS, color naming tended to be shaped in part by well-formedness. At the same time, our model also suggests where linguistic convention may get some wiggle room: there are often several simi...

ABSTRACTFive experiments examined whether overt repetition (i.e., saying a word aloud) during exposure is critical to the expressive learning of new words. When participants did not engage in overt repetition during exposure, they nevertheless exhibited clear expressive learning, both with and without an accompanying semantics, indicating that overt repetition is not critical to expressive word learning. In addition, learning without overt repetition did not differ from learning with overt repetition, suggesting that overt repetition confers no benefit for learning in this situation. These results are discussed in relation to previous studies, and it is suggested that benefits of repetition may accrue primarily in second language rather than in first language word learning.

Abstract Spatial terms in the world's languages appear to reflect both universal conceptual tendencies and linguistic convention. A similarly mixed picture in the case of color naming has been accounted for in terms of near-optimal partitions of color space. Here, we demonstrate that this ...

The nature of color categories in the world's languages is contested. One major view holds that color categories are organized around universal focal colors, whereas an opposing view holds instead that categories are defined at their boundaries by linguistic convention. Both of these standardly opposed views are challenged by existing data. Here, we argue for a third view based on a proposal by Jameson and D'Andrade [Jameson KA, D'Andrade RG (1997) in Color Categories in Thought and Language, eds Hardin CL, Maffi L (Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, U.K.), pp 295-319]: that color naming across languages reflects optimal or near-optimal divisions of an irregularly shaped perceptual color space. We formalize this idea, test it against color-naming data from a broad range of languages and show that it accounts for universal tendencies in color naming while also accommodating some observed cross-language variation.

Abstract: 39th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology Perinatal rats are responsive to feedback resulting from biomechanical constraint of movement. Just 24-hours after birth (P1), pups alter their interlimb coordination when trained with a conjugate yoke, which creates a physical linkage between the hindlimbs. Pups learn to ?express an in-phase pattern of movement after 30-min of yoke training that persists after removal of the yoke. Using a magnetic-based motion tracking system (Ascension Technology Microbird1), we measured the hindlimb position before, during, and after yoke training. By attaching 1. 3 mm magnetic sensors to the plantar surface of each hind foot we obtained real-time 3-D tracking of foot position ( 􏰂 0.1 mm, 45 Hz). Analysis of limb kinematics revealed that the distribution of phase relationships between hindlimbs measured within 1-sec moving windows shifted quantitatively toward strong positive correlations, indicative of in-...

The nature of color categories in the world's languages is contested. One major view holds that color categories are organized around universal focal colors, whereas an opposing view holds instead that categories are defined at their boundaries by linguistic convention. Both of these standardly opposed views are challenged by existing data. Here, we argue for a third view based on a proposal by Jameson and D'Andrade [Jameson KA, D'Andrade RG (1997) in Color Categories in Thought and Language, eds Hardin CL, Maffi L (Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, U.K.), pp 295-319]: that color naming across languages reflects optimal or near-optimal divisions of an irregularly shaped perceptual color space. We formalize this idea, test it against color-naming data from a broad range of languages and show that it accounts for universal tendencies in color naming while also accommodating some observed cross-language variation.

When two agents of unequal strength compete, the stronger one is expected to always win the competition. This expectation is based on the assumption that evaluation of performance is complete, hence flawless. If, however, the agents are evaluated on the basis of only a small sample of their performance, the weaker agent still stands a chance of winning occasionally. A theoretical analysis indicates that, to increase the chance of this happening the weaker agent ought to give up on enough occasions so that he or she can match the stronger agent on the remaining ones. We model such a competition in a game, present its game-theoretic solution, and report an experiment, involving 144 individuals, in which we tested whether players (both weak and strong) are actually sensitive to their relative strengths and know how to allocate their resources accordingly. Our results indicate that they do.