Bootstrapping in a language of thought: A formal model of conceptual change in number word learning
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Tenenbaum_Bootstrapping in a language of thought.pdf
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Author(s)
Piantadosi, Steven T.
Tenenbaum, Joshua B.
Goodman, Noah D.
Alternative Title
Bootstrapping in a language of thought: A formal model of numerical concept learning
Date Issued
January 2012
Journal
Cognition
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Piantadosi, Steven T., Joshua B. Tenenbaum, and Noah D. Goodman. “Bootstrapping in a Language of Thought: A Formal Model of Numerical Concept Learning.” Cognition 123, no. 2 (May 2012): 199–217.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
In acquiring number words, children exhibit a qualitative leap in which they transition from understanding a few number words, to possessing a rich system of interrelated numerical concepts. We present a computational framework for understanding this inductive leap as the consequence of statistical inference over a sufficiently powerful representational system. We provide an implemented model that is powerful enough to learn number word meanings and other related conceptual systems from naturalistic data. The model shows that bootstrapping can be made computationally and philosophically well-founded as a theory of number learning. Our approach demonstrates how learners may combine core cognitive operations to build sophisticated representations during the course of development, and how this process explains observed developmental patterns in number word learning.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.11.005
