2021
A distributional perspective on the gavagai problem in early word learning
Aslin RN, Wang AF. A distributional perspective on the gavagai problem in early word learning. Cognition 2021, 213: 104680. PMID: 33853740, PMCID: PMC8324554, DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104680.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsEarly word learningWord learningProperty wordsObject wordsNovel labelWhole objectStatistical learning paradigmObjects/eventsAppropriate grammatical categoryDistributional informationRapid namingWord learnersReferential ambiguityNovel objectsPossible referentsNaïve learnersLanguage inputObject propertiesLearning paradigmPlausible accountGrammatical categoriesWordsYoung infantsCorpus analysisLearning
2017
Indexical and linguistic processing by 12-month-olds: Discrimination of speaker, accent and vowel differences
Mulak KE, Bonn CD, Chládková K, Aslin RN, Escudero P. Indexical and linguistic processing by 12-month-olds: Discrimination of speaker, accent and vowel differences. PLOS ONE 2017, 12: e0176762. PMID: 28520762, PMCID: PMC5435166, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176762.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsIndexical variationLanguage inputInfants' speech processingLarger receptive vocabulariesSame vowel categoryChildren's language inputIndexical variabilityPhoneme acquisitionInfants' sensitivityReceptive vocabularyDifferent accentsSpeech tokensCategory boundariesIndexical cuesLinguistic processingLinguistic cuesDistributional learningIndividual speakersVowel categoriesSpeech processingVowel differencesSpeakersSame speakerLearning contextSpeaker variability
2011
Prosody guides the rapid mapping of auditory word forms onto visual objects in 6-mo-old infants
Shukla M, White KS, Aslin RN. Prosody guides the rapid mapping of auditory word forms onto visual objects in 6-mo-old infants. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America 2011, 108: 6038-6043. PMID: 21444800, PMCID: PMC3076873, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1017617108.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsAuditory word formsProsodic phrase boundariesWord formsPhrase boundariesContinuous speechWord learning processWord-like unitsMore naturalistic conditionsVisual referentsVisual objectsLanguage inputSuccessful learningSpeech inputNative languageNaturalistic conditionsHuman infantsLearner expectationsLearning processSpeechReferential roleLearningParsingComplex contextProsodyExpectations
1996
Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants
Saffran J, Aslin R, Newport E. Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants. Science 1996, 274: 1926-1928. PMID: 8943209, DOI: 10.1126/science.274.5294.1926.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsLanguage acquisitionStatistical learningExperience-independent mechanismsSegmentation of wordsExperience-dependent mechanismsLanguage inputWord segmentationFluent speechMost theoristsOlder infantsSpeechLearningLearnersWordsAcquisitionTheoristsPowerful mechanismPresent studyTaskFundamental taskInfantsTypes of mechanismsWord Segmentation: The Role of Distributional Cues
Saffran J, Newport E, Aslin R. Word Segmentation: The Role of Distributional Cues. Journal Of Memory And Language 1996, 35: 606-621. DOI: 10.1006/jmla.1996.0032.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchDistributional cuesWord boundariesProsodic cuesWord segmentationTransitional probabilitiesContinuous speech streamFirst taskLanguage learnersLanguage acquisitionArtificial languageLanguage inputSpeech streamOnly cueCuesLanguageLearnersLearning problemWordsRelative strengthSyllablesTaskBoundariesAdultsSoundAcquisition