Event Details:
"Toward a Coordination Account of Early Word Learning: Memory, Attention, and the Structure of Naming Events”.
Early word learning is fast; the average child produces more than 1000 words by age 2.5. Our explanations of this impressive rate point to children's early competence in statistical learning -- tracking sounds, objects, and their co-occurrence in the environment. However, children's statistical learning abilities are significantly constrained by developing attention and memory, suggesting that early acquisition should be slow. Analyses of child-directed input present the solution to this puzzle: early language input is calibrated to precisely these same cognitive constraints. I will propose reframing early word learning as a coordination problem: children's vocabularies grow so rapidly because learning mechanisms and input are coordinated to each-other.
Everyone is welcome to attend (students, postdocs, faculty, staff). There will be plenty of time for Q&A and interaction. Dinner will be provided at 6:30pm. The seminar will be held in Sloan Hall, Math Bldg 380, Room 380-C, lower level courtyard side, followed by dinner in the courtyard outside of Jordan Hall, Bldg 420, Room 050.*Please RSVP for the Monday, April 28 Dinner to lehope@stanford.edu by Tuesday, April 22