Spontaneous generalization of abstract multimodal patterns in young domestic chicks

From the early stages of life, learning the regularities associated with specific objects is crucial for making sense of experiences. Through filial imprinting, young precocial birds quickly learn the features of their social partners by mere exposure. It is not clear though to what extent chicks can extract abstract patterns of the visual and acoustic stimuli present in the imprinting object, and how they combine them. To investigate this issue, we exposed chicks (Gallus gallus) to three days of visual and acoustic imprinting, using either patterns with two identical items or patterns with two different items, presented visually, acoustically or in both modalities. Next, chicks were given a choice between the familiar and the unfamiliar pattern, present in either the multimodal, visual or acoustic modality. The responses to the novel stimuli were affected by their imprinting experience, and the effect was stronger for chicks imprinted with multimodal patterns than for the other groups. Interestingly, males and females adopted a different strategy, with males more attracted by unfamiliar patterns and females more attracted by familiar patterns. Our data show that chicks can generalize abstract patterns by mere exposure through filial imprinting and that multimodal stimulation is more effective than unimodal stimulation for pattern learning.     

Detection of symmetry in tachistoscopically presented dot patterns: Effects of multiple axes and skewing

We examined the effects of multiple axes and skewing on the detectability of symmetry in tachistoscopically presented (100-msec) dot patterns to test the role of normal grouping processes based on higher order regularities in element positions. In addition to the first-order regularities of orientational uniformity and midpoint collinearity (Jenkins, 1983), bilateral symmetry (BS) gives rise to second-order relations between two pairs of symmetric elements (represented by correlation quadrangles). We suggest that they allow the regularity (i.e., BS) to emerge simply as a result of the position-based grouping that takes place normally, so that no special symmetry-detection mechanism has to be postulated. In combination with previously investigated variables— number and orientation of axes—we introduced skewing (resulting from orthographic projection of BS) to manipulate the kind and number of higher order regularities. In agreement with our predictions, the data show that the effect of skewing angle (varied at three 15° steps, clockwise and counterclockwise) on the preattentive detectability of symmetry (measured with d’) increases as the number of axes decreases. On the basis of some more specific findings, we suggest that it is not as much the number of correlation quadrangles that determines the saliency of a regularity as it is the degree to which they facilitate or “bootstrap” each other.     

Detection of symmetry in tachistoscopically presented dot patterns: effects of multiple axes and skewing.

We examined the effects of multiple axes and skewing on the detectability of symmetry in tachistoscopically presented (100-msec) dot patterns to test the role of normal grouping processes based on higher order regularities in element positions. In addition to the first-order regularities of orientational uniformity and midpoint collinearity (Jenkins, 1983), bilateral symmetry (BS) gives rise to second-order relations between two pairs of symmetric elements (represented by correlation quadrangles). We suggest that they allow the regularity (i.e., BS) to emerge simply as a result of the position-based grouping that takes place normally, so that no special symmetry-detection mechanism has to be postulated. In combination with previously investigated variables--number and orientation of axes--we introduced skewing (resulting from orthographic projection of BS) to manipulate the kind and number of higher order regularities. In agreement with our predictions, the data show that the effect of skewing angle (varied at three 15 degrees steps, clockwise and counterclockwise) on the preattentive detectability of symmetry (measured with d') increases as the number of axes decreases. On the basis of some more specific findings, we suggest that it is not as much the number of correlation quadrangles that determines the saliency of a regularity as it is the degree to which they facilitate or "bootstrap" each other.     

PatPho: A phonological pattern generator for neural networks

Much of the power of neural network modeling for language use and acquisition derives from a reliance on statistical regularities implicit in the phonological properties of words. Researchers have devised several methods for representing the phonology of words, but these methods are often either unable to represent realistically sized lexicons or inadequate in the ways they represent individual words. In this paper, we present a new phonological pattern generator (PatPho) that allows connectionist modelers to derive accurate phonological representations of the English lexicon. PatPho not only generates phonological patterns that can scale up to realistically sized lexicons, but also accurately and parsimoniously captures the similarity structures of the phonology of monosyllabic and multisyllabic words.     

Distributional Stress Regularity: A Corpus Study

The regularity of stress patterns in a language depends on distributional stress regularity, which arises from the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, and durational stress regularity, which arises from the timing of syllables. Here we focus on distributional regularity, which depends on three factors. Lexical stress patterning refers to normal stress patterns within words; interlexical stress patterning refers to patterns that arise from word combinations; and contextual stress patterning refers to adjustments in normal lexical stress patterns (such as the well-known phenomenon of “stress clash avoidance”). A corpus study was done to assess the effect of these three factors on distributional stress regularity in conversational and formal spoken English, by comparing the degree of stress regularity in stress-annotated corpus data to randomly manipulated versions of the data and to “citation-form” stress patterns drawn from a phonetic dictionary. The results show that both lexical and interlexical patterning contribute significantly to stress regularity in English; contextual stress patterning does not, and in fact significantly reduces regularity in comparison to citation-form stress patterns.     

What will they say?—Public Announcement Games

The last two decades have seen a rising interest in (a) the notion of a scientific phenomenon as distinct from theories and data, and (b) the intricacies of experimentally producing and stabilizing phenomena. This paper develops an analysis of the stabilization of phenomena that integrates two aspects that have largely been treated separately in the literature: one concerns the skills required for empirical work; the other concerns the strategies by which claims about phenomena are validated. I argue that in order to make sense of the process of stabilization, we need to distinguish between two types of phenomena: phenomena as patterns in the data (“surface regularities”) and phenomena as underlying (or “hidden”) regularities. I show that the epistemic relationships that data bear to each of these types of phenomena are different: Data patterns are instantiated by individual data, whereas underlying regularities are indicated by individual data, insofar as they instantiate a data pattern. Drawing on an example from memory research, I argue that neither of these two kinds of phenomenon can be stabilized in isolation. I conclude that what is stabilized when phenomena are stabilized is the fit between surface regularities and hidden regularities.     

Discovering hidden time patterns in behavior: T-patterns and their detection

This article deals with the definition and detection of particular kinds of temporal patterns in behavior, which are sometimes obvious or well known, but other times difficult to detect, either directly or with standard statistical methods. Characteristics of well-known behavior patterns were abstracted and combined in order to define a scale-independent, hierarchical time pattern type, called aT-pattern. A corresponding detection algorithm was developed and implemented in a computer program, called Theme. The proposed pattern typology and detection algorithm are based on the definition and detection of a particular relationship between pairs of events in a time series, called acritical interval relation. The proposed bottom-up, level-by-level (or breadth-first) search algorithm is based on a binary tree of such relations. The algorithm first detects simpler patterns. Then, more complex and complete patterns evolve through the connection of simpler ones, pattern completeness competition, and pattern selection. Interindividual T-patterns in a quarter-hour interaction between two children are presented, showing that complex hidden T-patterns may be found by Theme in such behavioral streams. Finally, implications for studies of complexity, self-organization, and dynamic patterns are discussed.     

Children's Ideas About What Can Really Happen: The Impact of Age and Religious Background

Five- to 11-year-old U.S. children, from either a religious or secular background, judged whether story events could really happen. There were four different types of stories: magical stories violating ordinary causal regularities; religious stories also violating ordinary causal regularities but via a divine agent; unusual stories not violating ordinary causal regularities but with an improbable event; and realistic stories not violating ordinary causal regularities and with no improbable event. Overall, children were less likely to judge that religious and magical stories could really happen than unusual and realistic stories although religious children were more likely than secular children to judge that religious stories could really happen. Irrespective of background, children frequently invoked causal regularities in justifying their judgments. Thus, in justifying their conclusion that a story could really happen, children often invoked a causal regularity, whereas in justifying their conclusion that a story could not really happen, they often pointed to the violation of causal regularity. Overall, the findings show that children appraise the likelihood of story events actually happening in light of their beliefs about causal regularities. A religious upbringing does not impact the frequency with which children invoke causal regularities in judging what can happen, even if it does impact the type of causal factors that children endorse.     

The embodied cognition theory and the motor component of “yes” and “no” verbal responses

Most of the experiments which give theories of embodied cognition their empirical anchorage only take into consideration the motor responses induced by the task or the motor component of the visual stimulus. And yet, these motor responses are often associated with a linguistic answer. Our hypothesis is that “YES” and “NO” verbal responses have a motor component. In a first experiment we showed that producing a verbal response (YES vs. NO) involves motor planning (pushing vs. pulling): participants push a lever more quickly when they have to answer “yes” than “no”, and conversely, they pull a lever more quickly when they have to answer “no” than “yes”. Moreover, in a second experiment, we showed that perceiving the words “YES” and “NO”, on its own, leads to the same motor planning than when “yes” and “no” answers actually have to be produced. Participants detect the word “YES” faster when they have to push a lever than when they have to pull it and conversely they detect the word “NO” faster when they have to pull the lever than when they have to push it down. These results are discussed in reference to “online” and “offline embodiment” concepts and to the cognitive linguistic theories.     

Global dot integration in typically developing children and in Williams Syndrome

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that results in deficits in visuospatial perception and cognition. The dorsal stream vulnerability hypothesis in WS predicts that visual motion processes are more susceptible to damage than visual form processes. We asked WS participants and typically developing children to detect the global structure Glass patterns, under “static” and “dynamic” conditions in order to evaluate this hypothesis. Sequentially presented Glass patterns are coined as dynamic because they induce illusory motion, which is modeled after the interaction between orientation (form) and direction (motion) mechanisms. If the dorsal stream vulnerability holds in WS participants, then they should process real and illusory motion atypically. However, results are consistent with the idea that form and motion integration mechanisms are functionally delayed or attenuated in WS. Form coherence thresholds for both static and dynamic Glass patterns in WS were similar to those of 4–5 year old children, younger than what is predicted by mental age. Dynamic presentation of Glass patterns improved thresholds to the same degree as typical participants. Motion coherence thresholds in WS were similar to those of mental age matches. These data pose constraints on the dorsal vulnerability hypothesis, and refine our understanding of the relationship between form and motion processing in development.     

Learning multiple rules simultaneously: Affixes are more salient than reduplications

Language learners encounter numerous opportunities to learn regularities, but need to decide which of these regularities to learn, because some are not productive in their native language. Here, we present an account of rule learning based on perceptual and memory primitives (Endress, Dehaene-Lambertz, & Mehler, Cognition, 105(3), 577–614, 2007; Endress, Nespor, & Mehler, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(8), 348–353, 2009), suggesting that learners preferentially learn regularities that are more salient to them, and that the pattern of salience reflects the frequency of language features across languages. We contrast this view with previous artificial grammar learning research, which suggests that infants “choose” the regularities they learn based on rational, Bayesian criteria (Frank & Tenenbaum, Cognition, 120(3), 360–371, 2013; Gerken, Cognition, 98(3)B67–B74, 2006, Cognition, 115(2), 362–366, 2010). In our experiments, adult participants listened to syllable strings starting with a syllable reduplication and always ending with the same “affix” syllable, or to syllable strings starting with this “affix” syllable and ending with the “reduplication”. Both affixation and reduplication are frequently used for morphological marking across languages. We find three crucial results. First, participants learned both regularities simultaneously. Second, affixation regularities seemed easier to learn than reduplication regularities. Third, regularities in sequence offsets were easier to learn than regularities at sequence onsets. We show that these results are inconsistent with previous Bayesian rule learning models, but mesh well with the perceptual or memory primitives view. Further, we show that the pattern of salience revealed in our experiments reflects the distribution of regularities across languages. Ease of acquisition might thus be one determinant of the frequency of regularities across languages.     

Asymmetry in 3-D perceptual organization: ground-like surface superior to ceiling-like surface

Attneave (1954) and Barlow (1961) proposed that the visual system might increase efficiency of representation by preferentially encoding spatiotemporally redundant patterns of the external world. The present experiments tested the application of this principle to three-dimensional (3-D) perceptual organization, capitalizing on the ecological constraint that human observers must frequently interact with objects arranged on the ground or on a surface parallel to it (Gibson, 1950). Observers performed a task that required them to perceptually segregate and search multiple items distributed in depth and embedded within a larger, 3-D array of distractors. Stimulus displays were organized to globally recede top-away in depth, as if attached to an underlying ground-like surface, or bottom-away, as if attached to an overhanging ceiling-like surface; ground-like and ceiling-like displays differed only in the direction of disparity gradient within the displays. Primary findings revealed superior performance with ground-like displays, suggesting that spatially and stereoscopically distributed items are more easily organized to represent an ecologically representative pattern, even when no inherent physical regularities favor that pattern.     

A developmental and cross-cultural study of the influences of rule structure and problem composition on the learning of conceptual classifications

Five experiments were conducted permitting direct comparisons in the way Ss of different ages and cultures solved conceptual problems. One group of problems (Traditional) could be solved using a reference rule of conjunction or disjunction. Another group of problems (Intradimensional) could be solved either by one of the reference rules, or by a structurally simpler rule. Analysis of American performance confirmed that older Ss not only solved using the simpler rule more often than younger Ss, but when they did so they solved faster. For both American age groups, solution using the simpler rule led to no difference in performance between conjunctive and disjunctive Intradimensional problems. Conjunction proved easier than disjunction only for the Traditional problems. Unlike Americans, the Kpelle of Liberia did not solve using the simpler rule, and found conjunction easier than disjunction for both Traditional and Intradimensional problems. When a memory aid was provided the Kpelle showed a pattern of performance exactly like Americans.     

Can bare dispositions explain categorical regularities?

One of the traditional desiderata for a metaphysical theory of laws of nature is that it be able to explain natural regularities. Some philosophers have postulated governing laws to fill this explanatory role. Recently, however, many have attempted to explain natural regularities without appealing to governing laws. Suppose that some fundamental properties are bare dispositions. In virtue of their dispositional nature, these properties must be (or are likely to be) distributed in regular patterns. Thus it would appear that an ontology including bare dispositions can dispense with governing laws of nature. I believe that there is a problem with this line of reasoning. In this essay, I’ll argue that governing laws are indispensable for the explanation of a special sort of natural regularity: those holding among categorical properties (or, as I’ll call them, categorical regularities). This has the potential to be a serious objection to the denial of governing laws, since there may be good reasons to believe that observed regularities are categorical regularities.     

On the limits of infants' quantification of small object arrays

Recent work suggests that infants rely on mechanisms of object-based attention and short-term memory to represent small numbers of objects. Such work shows that infants discriminate arrays containing 1, 2, or 3 objects, but fail with arrays greater than 3 [Feigenson, L., & Carey, S. (2003). Tracking individuals via object-files: Evidence from infants' manual search. Developmental Science, 6, 568-584; Feigenson, L., Carey, S., & Hauser, M. (2002). The representations underlying infants' choice of more: Object files versus analog magnitudes. Psychological Science, 13(2), 150-156]. However, little is known about how infants represent arrays exceeding the 3-item limit of parallel representation. We explored possible formats by which infants might represent a 4-object array. Experiment 1 used a manual search paradigm to show that infants successfully discriminated between arrays of 1 vs. 2, 2 vs. 3, and 1 vs. 3 objects. However, infants failed to discriminate 1 vs. 4 despite the highly discriminable ratio, providing the strongest evidence to date for object-file representations underlying performance in this task. Experiment 2 replicated this dramatic failure to discriminate 1 from 4 in a second paradigm, a cracker choice task. We then showed that infants in the choice task succeeded at choosing the larger quantity with 0 vs. 4 crackers and with 1 small vs. 4 large crackers. These results suggest that while infants failed to represent 4 as “exactly 4”, “approximately 4”, “3”, or as even as “a plurality”, they did represent information about the array, including the existence of a cracker or cracker-material and the size of the individual objects in the array.     

Intentional switching between patterns of bimanual coordination depends on the intrinsic dynamics of the patterns

Two predictions arising from previous theoretical and empirical work which demonstrated that spontaneous changes of bimanual coordination patterns result from a loss of pattern stability (i.e., a nonequilibrium phase transition) were tested: (a) that the time it takes to intentionally switch from one pattern to another depends on the differential stability of the patterns themselves; and (b) that an intention, defined as an intended behavioral pattern, can change the dynamical characteristics, e.g., the overall stability of the behavioral patterns. Subjects moved both index fingers rhythmically at one of six movement frequencies while performing either an in-phase or antiphase pattern of finger coordination. On cue from an auditory signal, subjects switched from the ongoing pattern to the other pattern. The relative phase of movement between the two fingers was used to characterize the ongoing coordinative pattern. The time taken to switch between patterns, or switching time, and relative phase fluctuations were used to evaluate the modified pattern dynamics resulting from a subject's intention to change patterns. Switching from the in-phase to the antiphase pattern was significantly slower than switching in the opposite direction for all subjects. Both the mean and distribution of switching times in each direction were found to be in agreement with model predictions. movement frequency had little effect on switching time, a finding that is also consistent with the model. Relative phase fluctuations were significantly larger when moving in the antiphase pattern at the highest movement frequencies studied. The results show that, although intentional influences act to modify a coordinative pattern's intrinsic dynamics, the influence of these dynamics on the resulting behavior is always present and is particularly strong at high movement frequencies.     

Effects of pattern orientation and number of symmetry axes on the detection of mirror symmetry in dot and solid patterns

It has been postulated that as the number of axes of symmetry in a pattern increases, so pattern 'goodness' increases. Recently, a distinction was made between two different theoretical accounts of regularity or 'goodness' in relation to patterns with mirror symmetry: the 'transformational' and the 'holographic' models. It was argued that the former predicts a 'goodness' ordering of four > three > two > one whereas the latter predicts four > two > three > one, where '>' means greater regularity or goodness. In three experiments, we have tested these predictions. In experiment 1, we measured percentage correct and reaction time to dot patterns which had one, two, three, or four axes of symmetry and were flashed for 150 ms. Experiment 2 was identical except that patterns were presented for 2000 ms. In experiment 3, dot patterns were replaced by solid shapes which also had one, two, three, or four axes of symmetry. Although it was found that stimuli with four axes clearly allowed superior performance to that of stimuli with one axis, results obtained with stimuli with two and three axes were almost identical and in between those obtained with one and four axes. The data thus support the suggestion that extra axes add 'goodness' to symmetrical patterns but not in a monotonic fashion.     

Objects, events and "to be" verbs in Spanish--an ERP study of the syntax-semantics interface

In Spanish, objects and events at subject position constrain the selection of different forms of the auxiliary verb “to be”: locative predicates about objects require “estar en”, while those relating to events require “ser en”, both translatable as “to be in”. Subjective ratings showed that while the “object + ser + en” is considered as incorrect, the “event + estar + en” combination is also perceived as unacceptable but to a lesser degree. In an ERP study, we evaluated the impact of a purely semantic distinction (object versus events) on the subsequent processing of these auxiliary verbs followed by locatives in Spanish. For the “ser en” predicate, the P600 component was larger when the subject was an object than when it was an event. This P600 effect is consistent with an online repair of the defining predicate when it does not fit with the adequate semantic properties of the subject. On the other hand, for the “estar en” predicate, event subjects when compared to object subjects showed more positive ongoing amplitudes between 280 and 380 ms after the presentation of the “en” preposition, followed by a longer positive wave starting around 400 ms and lasting until 700 ms after the presentation of the following determiner, with central and frontal scalp distributions respectively. Thus, the different subject-predicate combinations, depending on the semantic features of the subjects, triggered syntactic reparatory processes at a structural level. These findings are consistent with an incremental interpretation of sentence meaning based on the interaction between syntactic and semantic information.     

A general method for computing hierarchical component structures by Goldberg’s Bass-Ackwards method

Goldberg [Goldberg, L. R.(in press) Doing it all Bass-Ackwards: The development of hierarchical factor structures from the top down. Journal of Research in Personality] has recently described a novel method for computing hierarchical component structures via a “top down” design. He calls his method the “Bass Ackwards” approach to distinguish it from more common “bottom up” methods for obtaining hierarchical solutions. Using simple matrix equations, in this commentary I demonstrate that the end result of a Bass Ackwards analysis—that is, the correlations between component scores from different levels of a hierarchy—can be calculated without calculating the actual component scores. By avoiding component-score calculation, Goldberg’s method (a) can be applied to any data set in which a correlation matrix is available, and (b) can be applied to factor scores rather than estimated factor scores. Goldberg suggests that the Bass Ackwards method represents a useful tool for elucidating the underlying dimensionality and latent structure (rotation in hyperspace) of a data set. Computer code is reported in the Appendix A of this article to help personality researchers more fully evaluate this claim in empirical and simulated data.