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Language acquisition is model-based rather than model-free

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2016

Felix Hao Wang  and
Toben H. Mintz
Felix Hao Wang
Affiliation:
Department of PsychologyUniversity of Southern California, 3620 McClintock Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061. [email protected]@usc.eduhttp://dornsife.usc.edu/tobenmintz
Toben H. Mintz
Affiliation:
Department of PsychologyUniversity of Southern California, 3620 McClintock Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061. [email protected]@usc.eduhttp://dornsife.usc.edu/tobenmintz
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Abstract

Christiansen & Chater (C&C) propose that learning language is learning to process language. However, we believe that the general-purpose prediction mechanism they propose is insufficient to account for many phenomena in language acquisition. We argue from theoretical considerations and empirical evidence that many acquisition tasks are model-based, and that different acquisition tasks require different, specialized models.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e89
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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