Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network Development

Recent work investigating the development of the phonological lexicon, where edges between words represent phonological similarity, have suggested that phonological network growth may be partly driven by a process that favors the acquisition of new words that are phonologically similar to several ex...

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Main Authors: Cynthia S. Q. Siew, Michael S. Vitevitch
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/22/9/1029
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author Cynthia S. Q. Siew
Michael S. Vitevitch
author_facet Cynthia S. Q. Siew
Michael S. Vitevitch
author_sort Cynthia S. Q. Siew
collection DOAJ
description Recent work investigating the development of the phonological lexicon, where edges between words represent phonological similarity, have suggested that phonological network growth may be partly driven by a process that favors the acquisition of new words that are phonologically similar to several existing words in the lexicon. To explore this growth mechanism, we conducted a simulation study to examine the properties of networks grown by inverse preferential attachment, where new nodes added to the network tend to connect to existing nodes with fewer edges. Specifically, we analyzed the network structure and degree distributions of artificial networks generated via either preferential attachment, an inverse variant of preferential attachment, or combinations of both network growth mechanisms. The simulations showed that network growth initially driven by preferential attachment followed by inverse preferential attachment led to densely-connected network structures (i.e., smaller diameters and average shortest path lengths), as well as degree distributions that could be characterized by non-power law distributions, analogous to the features of real-world phonological networks. These results provide converging evidence that inverse preferential attachment may play a role in the development of the phonological lexicon and reflect processing costs associated with a mature lexicon structure.
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spelling doaj.art-deda43b05469422f8fe35acf0183efe12023-11-20T13:46:11ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002020-09-01229102910.3390/e22091029Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network DevelopmentCynthia S. Q. Siew0Michael S. Vitevitch1Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, SingaporeDepartment of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USARecent work investigating the development of the phonological lexicon, where edges between words represent phonological similarity, have suggested that phonological network growth may be partly driven by a process that favors the acquisition of new words that are phonologically similar to several existing words in the lexicon. To explore this growth mechanism, we conducted a simulation study to examine the properties of networks grown by inverse preferential attachment, where new nodes added to the network tend to connect to existing nodes with fewer edges. Specifically, we analyzed the network structure and degree distributions of artificial networks generated via either preferential attachment, an inverse variant of preferential attachment, or combinations of both network growth mechanisms. The simulations showed that network growth initially driven by preferential attachment followed by inverse preferential attachment led to densely-connected network structures (i.e., smaller diameters and average shortest path lengths), as well as degree distributions that could be characterized by non-power law distributions, analogous to the features of real-world phonological networks. These results provide converging evidence that inverse preferential attachment may play a role in the development of the phonological lexicon and reflect processing costs associated with a mature lexicon structure.https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/22/9/1029network growthpreferential attachmentinverse preferential attachmentlanguage networkslanguage development
spellingShingle Cynthia S. Q. Siew
Michael S. Vitevitch
Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network Development
Entropy
network growth
preferential attachment
inverse preferential attachment
language networks
language development
title Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network Development
title_full Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network Development
title_fullStr Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network Development
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network Development
title_short Investigating the Influence of Inverse Preferential Attachment on Network Development
title_sort investigating the influence of inverse preferential attachment on network development
topic network growth
preferential attachment
inverse preferential attachment
language networks
language development
url https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/22/9/1029
work_keys_str_mv AT cynthiasqsiew investigatingtheinfluenceofinversepreferentialattachmentonnetworkdevelopment
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