Surprise! Infants consider possible bases of generalization for a single input example
Name
nihms568795.pdf
Size
206.61 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1df4ccb019cda5cf1dc40130c021cd84
Author(s)
Gerken, LouAnn
Dawson, Colin
Chatila, Razanne
Tenenbaum, Joshua B
Date Issued
December 2014
Journal
Developmental Science
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Citation
Gerken, LouAnn et al. “Surprise! Infants Consider Possible Bases of Generalization for a Single Input Example.” Developmental Science 18, 1 (April 2014): 80–89 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Infants have been shown to generalize from a small number of input examples. However, existing studies allow two possible means of generalization. One is via a process of noting similarities shared by several examples. Alternatively, generalization may reflect an implicit desire to explain the input. The latter view suggests that generalization might occur when even a single input example is surprising, given the learner's current model of the domain. To test the possibility that infants are able to generalize based on a single example, we familiarized 9-month-olds with a single three-syllable input example that contained either one surprising feature (syllable repetition, Experiment 1) or two features (repetition and a rare syllable, Experiment 2). In both experiments, infants generalized only to new strings that maintained all of the surprising features from familiarization. This research suggests that surprise can promote very rapid generalization. Infants have been shown to generalize from a small number of input examples. However, existing studies allow two possible means of generalization.
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/10.1111/DESC.12183
