The challenges of investigating the emergence of speech with artificial
language learning experiments
Hannah Little (hannah@ai.vub.ac.be) and Sabine van der Ham (sabine@ai.vub.ac.be)
Artificial Intelligence Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
When investigating language evolution the obvious problem is that there is a lack of empirical
data from when our species first started using language. In recent years many studies have
attempted to research the emergence of language using human participants (Kirby et al.,
2008). However, these studies use modern, fully language-proficient humans whose existing
linguistic knowledge will interfere during testing.
The ABACUS (advancing behavioral and cognitive understanding of speech) project is
investigating the cognitive mechanisms which allow humans to use combinatorial speech. As
part of this project, we are trying to identify the cognitive processes involved in the
emergence of combinatoriality in speech using artificial language learning experiments. These
experiments involve a mini artificial language which human participants learn. Participants
can then be tested in experiments looking at individual level learning processes, produce
output which can be taught to the next participant in iterated learning experiments (Kirby et
al., 2008), or participate in interaction in social coordination experiments (as outlined in
Garrod et al., 2010). These experiments suffer from using adult participants who are already
language-biased and so we need to find a way to avoid interference from pre-existing
linguistic knowledge in these tasks. One solution is the use of non-linguistic media, such as
graphical representations (Fay et al., 2008; Garrod et al., 2010) and slide whistles (Verhoef,
2011). However, the relevance of the outcomes of these experiments is dependent on the
extent to whether one subscribes to the idea that language is the result of domain general
processes, or the result of cognitive processes which are specifically adapted for language.
In this presentation we will discuss:
a) the extent to which we can apply the results of experiments which do not use overt
linguistic signals to what we know about language, and
b) how we might overcome the problems which arise when the experiment uses signals which
are too language-like
References
Fay, N., Garrod, S., & Roberts, L. (2008). The fitness and functionality of culturally
evolved communication systems. Philos. Tr. Roy. Soc. Lond. B, 363, 3553–3561.
Garrod, S., Fay, N., Rogers, S., Walker, B., & Swoboda, N. (2010). Can iterated learning
explain the emer-gence of graphical symbols? Interact. Stud., 11(1), 33-50.
Kirby, S., Cornish, H., & Smith, K. (2008). Cumulative cultural evolution in the
laboratory: An experimental approach to the origins of structure in human language.
P. Natl. A. Sci. USA, 105(31), 10681–10686.
Verhoef, T., Kirby, S. & Padden, C. (2011) Cultural emergence of combinatorial
structure in an artificial whistled language. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher & T. Shipley
(Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp.
483-488). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.