Overcoming Memory Limitations in Rule Learning
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Gibson_Overcoming memory.pdf
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142.18 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Frank, Michael C.
Gibson, Edward A.
Date Issued
March 2011
Journal
Language Learning and Development
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Citation
Frank, Michael C., and Edward Gibson. “Overcoming Memory Limitations in Rule Learning.” Language Learning and Development 7, no. 2 (March 31, 2011): 130–148.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Adults, infants, and other species are able to learn and generalize abstract patterns from sequentially presented stimuli. Rule learning of this type may be involved in children's acquisition of linguistic structure, but the nature of the mechanisms underlying these abilities is unknown. While inferences regarding the capabilities of these mechanisms are commonly made based on the pattern of successes and failures in simple artificial-language rule-learning tasks, failures may be driven by memory limitations rather than intrinsic limitations on the kinds of computations that learners can perform. Here we show that alleviating memory constraints on adult learners through concurrent visual presentation of stimuli allowed them to succeed in learning regularities in three difficult artificial rule-learning experiments where participants had previously failed to learn via sequential auditory presentation. These results suggest that memory constraints, rather than intrinsic limitations on learning, may be a parsimonious explanation for many previously reported failures. We argue that future work should attempt to characterize the role of memory constraints in natural and artificial language learning.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2010.512522
