The Statistical Mechanics of Word Learning
The Statistical Mechanics of Word Learning
- Event time: 1:00pm
- Event date: 6th October 2008
- Speaker: Professor Richard Blythe (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
- Location: Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
I will give a brief overview of theories for the processes by which children learn the meanings of words and some of the empirical evidence to support them. I will then show how, by throwing some statistical mechanics at the problem, we can discern whether processes inferred from psycholinguistic experiments admit a human-sized language to be learnt in a human-length amount of time. And what, if anything, does this have to say about the question of whether the cognitive abilities underpinning language are specialised to that task or not?
About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars
This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..