z-logo
Premium
Complex Adaptive Systems and the Origins of Adaptive Structure: What Experiments Can Tell Us
Author(s) -
Cornish Hannah,
Tamariz Monica,
Kirby Simon
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00540.x
Subject(s) - ambiguity , principle of compositionality , language acquisition , cognitive science , process (computing) , computer science , linguistics , constructed language , artificial intelligence , psychology , natural language processing , philosophy , programming language , operating system
Language is a product of both biological and cultural evolution. Clues to the origins of key structural properties of language can be found in the process of cultural transmission between learners. Recent experiments have shown that iterated learning by human participants in the laboratory transforms an initially unstructured artificial language into one containing regularities that make the system more learnable and stable over time. Here, we explore the process of iterated learning in more detail by demonstrating exactly how one type of structure—compositionality—emerges over the course of these experiments. We introduce a method to precisely quantify the increasing ability of a language to systematically encode associations between individual components of meanings and signals over time and we examine how the system as a whole evolves to avoid ambiguity in these associations and generate adaptive structure.

This content is not available in your region!

Continue researching here.

Having issues? You can contact us here