TY - JOUR
T1 - Sequence memory constraints give rise to language-like structure through iterated learning
AU - Cornish, Hannah
AU - Dale, Rick
AU - Kirby, Simon
AU - Christiansen, Morten H
N1 - ROUTE2
PY - 2017/1/24
Y1 - 2017/1/24
N2 - Human language is composed of sequences of reusable elements. The origins of the sequential structure of language is a hotly debated topic in evolutionary linguistics. In this paper, we show that sets of sequences with language-like statistical properties can emerge from a process of cultural evolution under pressure from chunk-based memory constraints. We employ a novel experimental task that is non-linguistic and non-communicative in nature, in which participants are trained on and later asked to recall a set of sequences one-by-one. Recalled sequences from one participant become training data for the next participant. In this way, we simulate cultural evolution in the laboratory. Our results show a cumulative increase in structure, and by comparing this structure to data from existing linguistic corpora, we demonstrate a close parallel between the sets of sequences that emerge in our experiment and those seen in natural language.
AB - Human language is composed of sequences of reusable elements. The origins of the sequential structure of language is a hotly debated topic in evolutionary linguistics. In this paper, we show that sets of sequences with language-like statistical properties can emerge from a process of cultural evolution under pressure from chunk-based memory constraints. We employ a novel experimental task that is non-linguistic and non-communicative in nature, in which participants are trained on and later asked to recall a set of sequences one-by-one. Recalled sequences from one participant become training data for the next participant. In this way, we simulate cultural evolution in the laboratory. Our results show a cumulative increase in structure, and by comparing this structure to data from existing linguistic corpora, we demonstrate a close parallel between the sets of sequences that emerge in our experiment and those seen in natural language.
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0168532
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0168532
M3 - Article
C2 - 28118370
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 1
ER -