Title
Sequential Expectations: The Role of Prediction-Based Learning in Language
Abstract
Prediction-based processes appear to play an important role in language. Few studies, however, have sought to test the relationship within individuals between prediction learning and natural language processing. This paper builds upon existing statistical learning work using a novel paradigm for studying the on-line learning of predictive dependencies. Within this paradigm, a new "prediction task" is introduced that provides a sensitive index of individual differences for developing probabilistic sequential expectations. Across three interrelated experiments, the prediction task and results thereof are used to bridge knowledge of the empirical relation between statistical learning and language within the context of nonadjacency processing. We first chart the trajectory for learning nonadjacencies, documenting individual differences in prediction learning. Subsequent simple recurrent network simulations then closely capture human performance patterns in the new paradigm. Finally, individual differences in prediction performances are shown to strongly correlate with participants' sentence processing of complex, long-distance dependencies in natural language.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1111/j.1756-8765.2009.01072.x
TOPICS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
Prediction,Sentence processing,Language comprehension,Statistical learning,Nonadjacent dependencies,Serial reaction time task,Simple recurrent network
Algorithmic learning theory,Sentence processing,Computer science,Cognitive psychology,Natural language,Chart,Natural language processing,Statistical learning,Artificial intelligence,Probabilistic logic,Trajectory,Machine learning
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
2.0
1.0
1756-8757
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
12
1.45
6
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jennifer Misyak1121.45
Morten H. Christiansen226944.17
J. Bruce Tomblin3121.45