The embodied statistician
How do infants, children, and adults learn grammatical rules from the mere observation of grammatically structured sequences? We present an embodied hypothesis that a) people covertly imitate stimuli; b) imitation tunes the particular neuromuscular systems used in the imitation, facilitating transi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2010-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00184/full |
| _version_ | 1818267747353624576 |
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| author | Elizabeth R Marsh Arthur M Glenberg Arthur M Glenberg |
| author_facet | Elizabeth R Marsh Arthur M Glenberg Arthur M Glenberg |
| author_sort | Elizabeth R Marsh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | How do infants, children, and adults learn grammatical rules from the mere observation of grammatically structured sequences? We present an embodied hypothesis that a) people covertly imitate stimuli; b) imitation tunes the particular neuromuscular systems used in the imitation, facilitating transitions between the states corresponding to the successive grammatical stimuli; and c) the discrimination between grammatical and ungrammatical stimuli is based on differential ease of imitation of the sequences. We report two experiments consistent with the embodied account of statistical learning. Experiment 1 demonstrates that sequences composed of stimuli imitated with different neuromuscular systems were more difficult to learn compared to sequences imitated within a single neuromuscular system. Experiment 2 provides further evidence by showing that selectively interfering with the tuned neuromuscular system while attempting to discriminate between grammatical and ungrammatical sequences disrupted performance only on sequences imitated by that particular neuromuscular system. Together these results are difficult for theories postulating that grammatical rule learning is based primarily on abstract statistics representing transition probabilities. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T20:27:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-339953b926f449448ad51bcf6d357a2e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T20:27:30Z |
| publishDate | 2010-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-339953b926f449448ad51bcf6d357a2e2022-12-22T00:13:07ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782010-11-01110.3389/fpsyg.2010.001842254The embodied statisticianElizabeth R Marsh0Arthur M Glenberg1Arthur M Glenberg2Arizona State UniversityArizona State UniversityUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonHow do infants, children, and adults learn grammatical rules from the mere observation of grammatically structured sequences? We present an embodied hypothesis that a) people covertly imitate stimuli; b) imitation tunes the particular neuromuscular systems used in the imitation, facilitating transitions between the states corresponding to the successive grammatical stimuli; and c) the discrimination between grammatical and ungrammatical stimuli is based on differential ease of imitation of the sequences. We report two experiments consistent with the embodied account of statistical learning. Experiment 1 demonstrates that sequences composed of stimuli imitated with different neuromuscular systems were more difficult to learn compared to sequences imitated within a single neuromuscular system. Experiment 2 provides further evidence by showing that selectively interfering with the tuned neuromuscular system while attempting to discriminate between grammatical and ungrammatical sequences disrupted performance only on sequences imitated by that particular neuromuscular system. Together these results are difficult for theories postulating that grammatical rule learning is based primarily on abstract statistics representing transition probabilities.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00184/fullEmbodied Cognitionstatistical learningartificial grammarfluencyimplicit imitation |
| spellingShingle | Elizabeth R Marsh Arthur M Glenberg Arthur M Glenberg The embodied statistician Frontiers in Psychology Embodied Cognition statistical learning artificial grammar fluency implicit imitation |
| title | The embodied statistician |
| title_full | The embodied statistician |
| title_fullStr | The embodied statistician |
| title_full_unstemmed | The embodied statistician |
| title_short | The embodied statistician |
| title_sort | embodied statistician |
| topic | Embodied Cognition statistical learning artificial grammar fluency implicit imitation |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00184/full |
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