Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment
In everyday communication, speakers make errors and produce language in a noisy environment. Recent work suggests that comprehenders possess cognitive mechanisms for dealing with noise in the linguistic signal: a noisy-channel model. A key parameter of these models is the noise model: the comprehend...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier BV
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125134 |
| _version_ | 1826196124477685760 |
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| author | Ryskin, Rachel A Futrell, Richard Kiran, Swathi Gibson, Edward A. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Ryskin, Rachel A Futrell, Richard Kiran, Swathi Gibson, Edward A. |
| author_sort | Ryskin, Rachel A |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In everyday communication, speakers make errors and produce language in a noisy environment. Recent work suggests that comprehenders possess cognitive mechanisms for dealing with noise in the linguistic signal: a noisy-channel model. A key parameter of these models is the noise model: the comprehender's implicit model of how noise affects utterances before they are perceived. Here we examine this noise model in detail, asking whether comprehension behavior reflects a noise model that is adapted to context. We asked readers to correct sentences if they noticed errors, and manipulated context by including exposure sentences containing obvious deletions (A bystander was rescued by the fireman in the nick time.), insertions, exchanges, mixed errors, or no errors. On test sentences (The bat swung the player.), participants’ corrections differed depending on the exposure condition. The results demonstrate that participants model specific types of errors and make inferences about the intentions of the speaker accordingly. Keywords: Sentence comprehension; Noisy-channel; Rational inference; Adaptation; Error correction |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:21:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/125134 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:21:37Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Elsevier BV |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1251342022-09-30T20:36:37Z Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment Ryskin, Rachel A Futrell, Richard Kiran, Swathi Gibson, Edward A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Linguistics and Language Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Cognitive Neuroscience Developmental and Educational Psychology Language and Linguistics In everyday communication, speakers make errors and produce language in a noisy environment. Recent work suggests that comprehenders possess cognitive mechanisms for dealing with noise in the linguistic signal: a noisy-channel model. A key parameter of these models is the noise model: the comprehender's implicit model of how noise affects utterances before they are perceived. Here we examine this noise model in detail, asking whether comprehension behavior reflects a noise model that is adapted to context. We asked readers to correct sentences if they noticed errors, and manipulated context by including exposure sentences containing obvious deletions (A bystander was rescued by the fireman in the nick time.), insertions, exchanges, mixed errors, or no errors. On test sentences (The bat swung the player.), participants’ corrections differed depending on the exposure condition. The results demonstrate that participants model specific types of errors and make inferences about the intentions of the speaker accordingly. Keywords: Sentence comprehension; Noisy-channel; Rational inference; Adaptation; Error correction National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant F32DC015163) National Science Foundation (U.S.). Linguistics Program (Grant 1534318) 2020-05-08T14:47:14Z 2020-05-08T14:47:14Z 2018-09 2018-08 2019-12-10T13:50:51Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0010-0277 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125134 Ryskin, Rachel et al. "Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment." Cognition 181 (December 2018): 141-150 © 2018 Elsevier B.V. en http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.08.018 Cognition Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier BV PMC |
| spellingShingle | Linguistics and Language Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Cognitive Neuroscience Developmental and Educational Psychology Language and Linguistics Ryskin, Rachel A Futrell, Richard Kiran, Swathi Gibson, Edward A. Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment |
| title | Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment |
| title_full | Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment |
| title_fullStr | Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment |
| title_short | Comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment |
| title_sort | comprehenders model the nature of noise in the environment |
| topic | Linguistics and Language Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Cognitive Neuroscience Developmental and Educational Psychology Language and Linguistics |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125134 |
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