ERIC Number: EJ982511
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Nov
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0749-596X
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Available Date: N/A
When Do Memory Limitations Lead to Regularization? An Experimental and Computational Investigation
Perfors, Amy
Journal of Memory and Language, v67 n4 p486-506 Nov 2012
The Less is More hypothesis suggests that one reason adults and children differ in their ability to learn language is that they also differ in other cognitive capacities. According to one version of this hypothesis, children's relatively poor memory may make them more likely to regularize inconsistent input (Hudson Kam & Newport, 2005, 2009). This paper reports the result of an experimental and computational investigation of one aspect of this version of the hypothesis. A series of seven experiments in which adults were placed under a high cognitive load during a language-learning task reveal that in adults, increased load during learning (as opposed to retrieval) does not result in increased regularization. A computational model offers a possible explanation for these results. It demonstrates that, unless memory limitations distort the data in a particular way, regularization should occur only in the presence of both memory limitations "and" a prior bias for regularization. Taken together, these findings suggest that the difference in regularization between adults and children may not be solely attributable to differences in memory limitations during learning. (Contains 5 figures.)
Descriptors: Memory, Adults, Children, Cognitive Ability, Linguistic Input, Linguistic Theory, Computational Linguistics, Task Analysis, Language Acquisition, Comparative Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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