Cogprints: No conditions. Results ordered -Date, Title. 2018-01-17T14:25:17ZEPrintshttp://cogprints.org/images/sitelogo.gifhttp://cogprints.org/2017-02-18T20:31:11Z2017-02-18T20:31:11Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/9817This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/98172017-02-18T20:31:11ZA Morse alphabetA compact alphabetic form of the Morse code is constructed following some simple rules. It is mostly useful in learning the Morse code and using it in writing form.Mihail-Ioan Popmihailp@unitbv.ro2012-11-09T19:40:24Z2012-11-09T19:40:24Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8263This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/82632012-11-09T19:40:24ZMI as a predictor of students’ performance in reading competencyThe purpose of this study was to examine whether performance in MI could predict the performance in reading competency. The other objectives were to identify the components of MI which are correlated with the reading test scores, and to determine the relationship between the multiple intelligences and reading proficiency. A descriptive and ex post facto design was employed to ascertain relationships among the variables. The participants were 128 randomly chosen pre-university students (grade12, 18-19 years old) of both genders studying in Tehran in the academic year 2008-2009. Three instruments were utilized in this study: 1) a demographic questionnaire; 2) the Persian version of Mckenzie’s MI Inventory; and 3) a standardized reading proficiency test which was selected from retrieved paper-based TOEFL® tests. Results of the correlation analysis revealed no significant relationship between the two variables of MI and reading scores of the students. Furthermore, the results of the correlation analysis revealed that there was a low significant, negative relationship between musical-rhythmic intelligence and reading which suggests that when the reading score of a student increases, musical-rhythmic intelligence of the same student decreases and vice versa. Overall, three categories of MI (musical-rhythmic, verbal-linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic) were found to be predictive of reading proficiency.Karim Hajhashemiomidhajhashemi@gmail.comBee Eng Wong2012-11-09T19:40:32Z2012-11-09T19:40:32Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8264This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/82642012-11-09T19:40:32ZThe Relationship between Iranian EFL High School Students’ Multiple Intelligence Scores and Their Use of Learning StrategiesAccording to the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) propounded by Gardner (1983, 1999a, 1999b), each individual has a multitude of intelligences that are quite independent of each other and each individual has a unique cognitive profile. Having access to the MI profiles and learning strategies of learners could help the teachers in planning activities to connect both strategies and students’ talents and provide students with the best possible instruction. Thus, this study attempts to find out the relationship between the MI profiles and language learning strategies used by Iranian EFL high school students. Two hundred and twenty-nine students (121 males, 108 females) participated in the study. The instruments used to elicit information for this study were McKenzie’s (1999) MI inventory and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) Questionnaire. The findings revealed that there is a low, positive correlation between the two variables of MI and learning strategies, r = 0.24. In addition, it was found that there is a low, positive correlation between MI and different strategy types. The highest correlation was seen between meta-cognitive strategies and MI, followed by compensation and cognitive strategies. Furthermore, the findings reveal that Iranian students mostly use meta-cognitive strategies followed by social strategies.Karim Hajhashemiomidhajhashemi@gmail.com2010-08-11T11:46:03Z2011-03-11T08:57:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6929This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/69292010-08-11T11:46:03ZRationale for design of Body Image unitThis rationale outlines the theoretical and pedagogic underpinings of my design. Miss Victoria L Clarkvictoria.clark@gmail.com2010-08-11T11:45:56Z2011-03-11T08:57:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6930This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/69302010-08-11T11:45:56ZTeacher's Book for Body ImageThis is the teacher's book that accompanies the Body Image unit.
There are the answers to the activites, as well as a rationale and suggestions for classroom activities. Miss Victoria L Clarkvictoria.clark@gmail.com2010-08-11T11:46:09Z2011-03-11T08:57:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6926This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/69262010-08-11T11:46:09ZTeaching Body Image to EFL TeenagersAn extract of an Upper-Intermediate EFL coursebook for teenage learners I designed in partial requirement for MA Applied Linguistics & English Language Teaching.
The material is centred about the topic of 'Body Image' and includes a focus on learner training; infinitives & gerunds; skimming and scanning reading tasks; intensive listening practice; giving opinions/speculating; rhyming words. Miss `Victoria L Clarkvictoria.clark@gmail.com2012-11-09T19:40:19Z2012-11-09T19:40:19Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8262This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/82622012-11-09T19:40:19ZA Validation Study of the Persian Version of Mckenzie's (1999) Multiple Intelligences Inventory to Measure MI Profiles of Pre-University StudentsTraditionally, intelligence was viewed as a single static entity. Revolutionizing the once-dominated “single-static entity” conceptualization, Gardner initially (1983) proposed his theory of Multiple intelligences (MI) that encompasses seven different areas of intelligence (verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal), and later on added the eighth and ninth areas (naturalist and existential) in 1999. Based on the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), a person may be viewed as intelligent in any of these areas, and the identification of the dominant intelligence type has proven to have pedagogic implications. McKenzie’s MI questionnaire (1999) is one of the established tools to identify the typology of intelligence. The present study aims to validate the Persian version of the MI Inventory (questionnaire) proposed by McKenzie (1999). This instrument provides an objective measure of MI. This paper describes the validation exercise of the abovementioned questionnaire that involved 173 pre-university students of both genders in Tehran. In addition, the variables gender and discipline were also considered in this study. The findings of the study indicate that overall, the Persian version of the questionnaire has a high reliability. In addition, the results show a moderate to high relationship between gender and MI profiles of the students.Karim Hajhashemiomidhajhashemi@gmail.comBee Eng Wong2009-09-07T10:21:45Z2011-03-11T08:57:24Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6624This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/66242009-09-07T10:21:45ZThe Learning of Ancient Languages as
(super)Human EffortProblems around teaching ancient languages are discussed. It is suggested to assume that
learning and teaching of languages require some superhuman effort. Author’s experience of
teaching ancient languages and producing electronic educational tools both for text version
and for Internet in Faculty of Theology in University of Latvia is described. Problems around
cognitive models of reasoning and place of languages there are discussed.Dainis Zeps2008-08-24T10:57:41Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6113This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61132008-08-24T10:57:41ZLa metafora come carrefour cognitivo del pensiero e del linguaggioNell’ultimo trentennio, le scienze cognitive hanno proposto una teoria alternativa a quelle che intendevano la metafora come strumento linguistico, cioè che il processo metaforico si potesse ridurre al livello letterale, semantico o pragmatico. Secondo la teoria della metafora concettuale, la metafora è un modo di rappresentare ed organizzare il nostro mondo, piuttosto che uno strumento semplicemente decorativo del linguaggio avente un ruolo puramente comunicativo. Questo shift paradigmatico ha influenzato anche altri aspetti delle scienze cognitive. In questo contributo si vuole delineare lo stato attuale della teoria esposta da Lakoff e Johnson e la maturazione del pensiero rispetto alla prima pubblicazione di Metaphors We Live By (1980/1998). Dopo avere illustrato i principi teorici, si daranno degli esempi di metafore culturali e multimodali e si puntualizzerà il ruolo analogo, ma distinto, alla metafora che la metonimia copre nell’ambito dei nostri sistemi concettuali.
Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2006-11-07Z2011-03-11T08:56:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5251This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/52512006-11-07ZSymbols are not uniquely humanModern semiotics is a branch of logics that formally defines symbol-based communication. In recent years, the semiotic classification of signs has been invoked to support the notion that symbols are uniquely human. Here we show that alarm-calls such as those used by African vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops), logically satisfy the semiotic definition of symbol. We also show that the acquisition of vocal symbols in vervet monkeys can be successfully simulated by a computer program based on minimal semiotic and neurobiological constraints. The simulations indicate that learning depends on the tutor-predator ratio, and that apprentice-generated auditory mistakes in vocal symbol interpretation have little effect on the learning rates of apprentices (up to 80% of mistakes are tolerated). In contrast, just 10% of apprentice-generated visual mistakes in predator identification will prevent any vocal symbol to be correctly associated with a predator call in a stable manner. Tutor unreliability was also deleterious to vocal symbol learning: a mere 5% of “lying” tutors were able to completely disrupt symbol learning, invariably leading to the acquisition of incorrect associations by apprentices. Our investigation corroborates the existence of vocal symbols in a non-human species, and indicates that symbolic competence emerges spontaneously from classical associative learning mechanisms when the conditioned stimuli are self-generated, arbitrary and socially efficacious. We propose that more exclusive properties of human language, such as syntax, may derive from the evolution of higher-order domains for neural association, more removed from both the sensory input and the motor output, able to support the gradual complexification of grammatical categories into syntax.Sidarta RibeiroAngelo LoulaIvan AraújoRicardo GudwinJoao Queiroz2004-09-07Z2011-03-11T08:55:41Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3807This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/38072004-09-07ZHow to Do Things Without Words: Infants, utterance-activity and distributed cognitionClark and Chalmers (1998) defend the hypothesis of an ‘Extended Mind’, maintaining that beliefs and other paradigmatic mental states can be implemented outside the central nervous system or body. Aspects of the problem of ‘language acquisition’ are considered in the light of the extended mind hypothesis. Rather than ‘language’ as typically understood, the object of study is something called ‘utterance-activity’, a term of art intended to refer to the full range of kinetic and prosodic features of the on-line behaviour of interacting humans. It is argued that utterance activity is plausibly regarded as jointly controlled by the embodied activity of interacting people, and that it contributes to the control of their behaviour. By means of specific examples it is suggested that this complex joint control facilitates easier learning of at least some features of language. This in turn suggests a striking form of the extended mind, in which infants’ cognitive powers are augmented by those of the people with whom they interact.Prof David Spurrett466Dr Stephen Cowley2004-06-05Z2011-03-11T08:55:36Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3655This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36552004-06-05ZHow we might be able to Understand the BrainCurrent methodologies in the neurosciences have difficulty in accounting for complex phenomena such as language, which can however be quite well characterised in phenomenological terms. This paper addresses the issue of unifying the two approaches. We typically understand complicated systems in terms of a collection of models, each characterisable in principle within a formal system, it being possible to explain higher-level properties in terms of lower level ones by means of a series of inferences based on these models. We consider the nervous system to be a mechanism for implementing the demands of an appropriate collection of models, each concerned with some aspect of brain and behaviour, the observer mechanism of Baas playing an important role in matching model and behaviour in this context. The discussion expounds these ideas in detail, showing their potential utility in connection with real problems of brain and behaviour, important areas where the ideas can be applied including the development of higher levels of abstraction, and linguistic behaviour, as described in the works of Karmiloff-Smith and Jackendoff respectively.Brian D. Josephson2006-01-06Z2011-03-11T08:56:18Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4683This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/46832006-01-06ZHow we might be able to Understand the BrainCurrent methodologies in the neurosciences have difficulty in accounting for complex phenomena such as language, which can however be quite well characterised in phenomenological terms. This paper addresses the issue of unifying the two approaches. We typically understand complicated systems in terms of a collection of models, each characterisable in principle within a formal system, it being possible to explain higher-level properties in terms of lower level ones by means of a series of inferences based on these models. We consider the nervous system to be a mechanism for implementing the demands of an appropriate collection of models, each concerned with some aspect of brain and behaviour, the observer mechanism of Baas playing an important role in matching model and behaviour in this context. The discussion expounds these ideas in detail, showing their potential utility in connection with real problems of brain and behaviour, important areas where the ideas can be applied including the development of higher levels of abstraction, and linguistic behaviour, as described in the works of Karmiloff-Smith and Jackendoff respectively.Brian D. Josephson2006-10-15Z2011-03-11T08:56:39Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5225This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/52252006-10-15ZHow we might be able to Understand the BrainCurrent methodologies in the neurosciences have difficulty in accounting for complex phenomena such as language, which can however be quite well characterised in phenomenological terms. This paper addresses the issue of unifying the two approaches. We typically understand complicated systems in terms of a collection of models, each characterisable in principle within a formal system, it being possible to explain higher-level properties in terms of lower level ones by means of a series of inferences based on these models. We consider the nervous system to be a mechanism for implementing the demands of an appropriate collection of models, each concerned with some aspect of brain and behaviour, the observer mechanism of Baas playing an important role in matching model and behaviour in this context. The discussion expounds these ideas in detail, showing their potential utility in connection with real problems of brain and behaviour, important areas where the ideas can be applied including the development of higher levels of abstraction, and linguistic behaviour, as described in the works of Karmiloff-Smith and Jackendoff respectively.Brian D. Josephson2005-01-01Z2011-03-11T08:55:47Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4001This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/40012005-01-01ZA Cognitive Account of Tense and Aspect:
Resurrecting "Dead" Metaphors
A cognitive account of tense and aspect is offered that presents an effective alternative to the traditional semantic account, giving deeper insights into the cognitive nature of grammar and enhancing the process of its acquisition.Prof. A.V. Kravchenko2002-06-16Z2011-03-11T08:54:56Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2276This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/22762002-06-16ZThe immune system and other cognitive systemsIn the following pages we propose a theory on cognitive systems and the common strategies of perception, which are at the basis of their function. We demonstrate that these strategies are easily seen to be in place in known cognitive systems such as vision and language. Furthermore we show that taking these strategies into consideration implies a new outlook on immune function calling for a new appraisal of the immune system as a cognitive system.Uri HershbergSol Efroni2000-07-04Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/150This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1502000-07-04ZConstructional Tools as the Origin of Cognitive CapacitiesIt is argued that cognitive capacities can be understood as the outcome of the collective action of a set of agents created by tools that explore possible behaviours and train the agents to behave in such appropriate ways as may be discovered. The coherence of the whole system is assured by a combination of vetting the performance of new agents and dealing appropriately with any faults that the whole system may develop. This picture is shown to account for a range of cognitive capacities, including language.Brian D. Josephson1999-10-19Z2011-03-11T08:53:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/221This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2211999-10-19ZASPECTS OF METALINGUISTIC ACTIVITYThe naive language user acts as the subject investigating (and creating) language. The metalinguistic component is singled out as one of those components of language activity that exercise an essential influence upon its organization and process. Anyhow, metalanguage activity is also carried out in a more explicit manner: from clearly expressed "personal theories" of language study and activity, to less obvious beliefs concerning the essence and the character of language units and actions mythologemes of language activity. As well as any other activity, metalanguage activity is governed by dynamic stereotyped patterns, which form a mythological picture of the life of language and of the life in language as environment. It is essential for understanding human language activity to disclose these implicit mechanisms. All words in language seem to possess a mythological nature. Besides, one can also distinguish mythologemes of general systemic and procedural character, without which language would not be able to exist and to be executed. Mythologemes of this kind constitute the language game as such: the "thingness" of words and the natural discreteness of their meanings. The mythological character of the users attitude to the words of language comes to light when roles are changed: when the included observer who is usually within the limits of the 'circle of language' (Humboldts metaphor) changes his role to that of a meta-observer. The negative influence of mythologemes on language activity is associated with the swap of positions and temporary moments of the actual language process. Many mythologemes in language teaching are formed on the basis (or bias) of the mechanistic determinism not only of everyday knowledge, but also that of school grammars. A systematic study of proto-scientific and implicit knowledge of language should bring its contribution both to understanding the essence of language activity, and to the task of optimizing linguistic technologies (in language teaching, mass communication etc.).Viatcheslav B. Kashkin1999-04-21Z2011-03-11T08:53:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/218This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2181999-04-21ZCorrelates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signalSpoken languages have been classified by linguists according to their rhythmic properties, and psycholinguists have relied on this classification to account for infants capacity to discriminate languages. Although researchers have measured many speech signal properties, they have failed to identify reliable acoustic characteristics for language classes. This paper presents instrumental measurements based on a consonant/vowel segmentation for eight languages. The measurements suggest that intuitive rhythm types reflect specific phonological properties, which in turn are signaled by the acoustic/phonetic properties of speech. The data support the notion of rhythm classes and also allow the simulation of infant language discrimination, consistent with the hypothesis that newborns rely on a coarse segmentation of speech. A hypothesis is proposed regarding the role of rhythm perception in language acquisition.Franck RamusMarina NesporJacques Mehler2000-07-17Z2011-03-11T08:54:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/869This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8692000-07-17ZCorrelates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signalSpoken languages have been classified by linguists according to their rhythmic properties, and psycholinguists have relied on this classification to account for infants capacity to discriminate languages. Although researchers have measured many speech signal properties, they have failed to identify reliable acoustic characteristics for language classes. This paper presents instrumental measurements based on a consonant/vowel segmentation for eight languages. The measurements suggest that intuitive rhythm types reflect specific phonological properties, which in turn are signaled by the acoustic/phonetic properties of speech. The data support the notion of rhythm classes and also allow the simulation of infant language discrimination, consistent with the hypothesis that newborns rely on a coarse segmentation of speech. A hypothesis is proposed regarding the role of rhythm perception in language acquisition.Franck RamusMarina NesporJacques Mehler1998-01-22Z2011-03-11T08:53:45Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/237This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2371998-01-22ZWhere Demonstratives Meet Vagueness: Possible LanguagesI argue that both demonstratives and vague predicates are instances of some more general linguistic phenomena, which could take quite different forms. My argument consists in constructing three natural-like langauges, and using their intelligibility to argue for conclusions about languages such as English.Adam Morton1998-04-27Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/194This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1941998-04-27ZFunctional Innateness: explaining the critical period for language acquisitionIn recent years, several explanations have been offered for the critical period in language acquisition, itself, a priori a somewhat surprising phenomenon. Two such explanations are considered here. Both studies use computer simulations, but the factors they model are very different. Hurford (1991) simulates the phylogenetic evolution over hundreds of generations of a species in which the timing of life history traits is under genetic control. The period when an individual is most proficient at language acquisition is just such a life history trait, and is capable of adaptive evolution. Evolutionary simulations lead to a concentration of language acquisition proficiency in the period up to puberty, with a subsequent tailing off. Elman (1993) demonstrates `the advantages of starting small' in neural networks learning mini-languages with many of the complex interacting grammatical factors found in real languages. A neural network which starts mature, with a full adult `working memory' cannot acquire such complex grammatical competence, whereas a net whose attention span is initially limited and then grows with maturation can acquire the appropriate grammar. This explains, in adaptive terms, the existence of a period in which an organism's characteristics, relevant to the language learning task, change, increasing a certain capacity (`working memory') from an immature to an adult value. These accounts are complementary and mutually compatible. An evolutionary account is proposed, in which genetically controlled `working memory' size in relation to life history is the variable operated on by natural selection. This account promises to produce a more detailed explanation of the critical period, which can be related to a wider range of data, including the coincidence with puberty and the involvement of sentence processing in language acquisition The relationships between Elman's `working memory' and the distinct psychological concept of working memory are also explored.Jim Hurford2001-02-23Z2011-03-11T08:54:28Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1178This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/11782001-02-23ZBut What Have You Done for Us Lately?: Some Recent Perspectives on Linguistic NativismThe problem with many contemporary criticisms of Chomsky and linguistic nativism is that they are based upon features of the theory that are no longer germane; aspects that have either been superseded by more adequate proposals, or that have been dropped altogether under the weight of contravening evidence. In this paper, rather than rehashing old debates that are voluminously documented elsewhere, we intend to focus on more recent developments. To this end, we have put a premium on references from the 1990s and the latter half of the 1980s. First, we will describe exactly what is now thought to be innate about language, and why it is thought to be innate rather than learned. Second, we will examine the evidence that many people take to be the greatest challenge to the nativist claim: ape language. Third, we will briefly consider how an innate language organ might have evolved. Fourth we will look at how an organism might communicate without benefit of the innate language structure proposed by Chomsky, and examine a number of cases in which this seems to be happening. Finally we will try to sum up our claims and characterize what we believe will be the most fruitful course of debate for the immediate future. Christopher D. GreenJohn Vervaeke1998-06-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/169This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1691998-06-15ZThe Dilemma of Saussurean CommunicationA Saussurean communication system exists when an entire communicating population uses a single "language" that maps states unambiguously onto symbols and then back into the original states. This paper describes a number of simulations performed with a genetic algorithm to investigate the conditions necessary for such communication systems to evolve. The first simulation shows that Saussurean communication evolves in the simple case where direct selective pressure is placed on individuals to be both good transmitters and good receivers. The second simulation demonstrates that, in the more realistic case where selective pressure is only placed on doing well as a receiver, Saussurean communication fails to evolve. Two methods, inspired by research on the Prisoner's Dilemma, are used to attempt to solve this problem. The third simulation shows that, even in the absence of selective pressure on transmission, Saussurean communication can evolve if individuals interact multiple times with the same communication partner and are given the ability to respond differentially based on past interaction. In the fourth simulation, spatially organized populations are used, and it is shown that this allows Saussurean communication to evolve through kin selection.Michael Oliphant1998-04-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/192This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1921998-04-15ZThe Role of Language in IntelligenceDoes thought depend on language? We human beings may not be the most admirable species on the planet, or the most likely to survive for another millennium, but we are without any doubt at all the most intelligent. We are also the only species with language. What is the relation between these two obvious facts?Daniel C Dennett1998-04-14Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/190This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1901998-04-14ZLearning and LabelingClark and Karmiloff-Smith (CKS) have written an extraordinarily valuable paper, which sympathetically addresses what has all too often been an acrimonious and ideology-ridden "debate" and begins to transform it into a multi-perspective research program. By articulating the submerged hunches on both sides in a single framework, and adding some powerful new ideas of their own, they dispel much of the smoke of battle. What we can now see much more clearly is the need for a model of a brain/mind that, as they say, "enriches itself from within by re-representing the knowledge that it has already represented."Daniel C Dennett1998-03-21Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/188This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1881998-03-21ZVerbal Language as a Communicative SystemWe human beings may not be the most admirable species on the planet, or the most likely to survive for another millennium, but we are without any doubt at all the most intelligent. We are also the only species with language. What is the relation between these two obvious facts?Daniel C Dennett1998-06-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/197This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1971998-06-15ZRethinking the language bottleneck: Why don't animals learn to communicate?While most work on the evolution of language has been centered on the evolution of syntax, my focus in this paper is instead on more basic features that separate human communication from the systems of communication used by other animals. In particular, I argue that human language is the only existing system of learned arbitrary reference. While innate communication systems are, by definition, directly transmitted genetically, the transmission of a learned learned systems must be indirect. Learners must acquire the system by being exposed its the use in the community. Although it is reasonable that a learner has access to the utterances that are produced, it is less clear how accessible the meaning is that the utterance is intended to convey. This particularly problematic if the system of communication is symbolic -- where form and meaning are linked in a purely conventional way. Given this, I propose that the ability to transmit a learned symbolic system of communication from one generation to the next represents a key milestone in the evolution of language.Michael Oliphant1998-06-15Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/196This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1961998-06-15ZThe learning barrier: Moving from innate to learned systems of communicationHuman language is a unique ability. It sits apart from other systems of communication in two striking ways: it is syntactic, and it is learned. While most approaches to the evolution of language have focused on the evolution of syntax, this paper explores the computational issues that arise in shifting from a simple innate communication system to an equally simple one that is learned. Associative network learning within an observational learning paradigm is used to explore the computational difficulties involved in establishing and maintaining a simple learned communication system. Because Hebbian learning is found to be sufficient for this task, it is proposed that the basic computational demands of learning are unlikely to account for the rarity of even simple learned communication systems. Instead, it is the problem of *observing* that is likely to be central -- in particular the problem of determining what meaning a signal is intended to convey.Michael Oliphant2001-12-20Z2011-03-11T08:54:51Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1992This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/19922001-12-20ZLearning Logographies and Alphabetic CodesIn three experiments, literate English-speaking adults learned either to identify or to extract meaning from either logographs (Blissymbols or Chinese characters) or English words written in an unfamiliar alphabetic code. Performance was substantially and reliably better in the logographic conditions than in the alphabetic conditions. Vocabulary sized ranged from 30 to 240 words per condition. In a fourth experiment, learning was slower with inconsistent mapping of graphemes to phonemes (similar to English) than with consistent mapping. These results indicate that, under a reasonably wide range of conditions, logographic writing systems may be easier to learn to read than alphabetic writing systems.Paul MuterElizabeth E. Johns1999-03-16Z2011-03-11T08:53:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/217This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/2171999-03-16ZA Holistic Approach to LanguageThe following progress report views language acquisition as primarily the attempt to create processes that connect together in a fruitful way linguistic input and other activity. The representations made of linguistic input are thus those that are optimally effective in mediating such interconnections. An effective Language Acquisition Device should contain mechanisms specific to the task of creating the desired interconnection processes in the linguistic environment in which the language learner finds himself or herself. Analysis of this requirement gives clear indications as to what these mechanisms may be.Brian D. JosephsonDavid G. Blair