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Dissecting the Faculty of Language with Cognitive Phylogenetics: Experiments in Animal Pattern Perception and Human Syntax| old_uid | 8184 |
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| title | Dissecting the Faculty of Language with Cognitive Phylogenetics: Experiments in Animal Pattern Perception and Human Syntax |
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| start_date | 2010/02/16 |
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| schedule | 10h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | The human capacity to acquire language involves many distinguishable cognitive mechanisms, many of which are shared with a wide range of animals, or other human cognitive faculties like music (part of the Faculty of Language, Broad Sense: FLB) while others are potentially unique to language and to our species (Facutly of Language, Narrow Sense: FLN). Determining which mechanisms, if any, are part of FLN requires an empirical approach, applicable to many animal species, because its contents must be determined by a process of elimination. I will outline the experimental approach used in my lab to probe pattern perception in animals (in both auditory and visual domains) and to compare these to mechanisms involved in syntax in humans. We use formal language theory to generate a wide variety of rule-governed patterns, and an artificial grammar learning framework to test mastery of these patterns. Current species being tested, using the same patterns and comparable techniques, include humans, apes, monkeys, pigeons, and parrots. In the future other birds (ravens), mammals (dogs, goats) and vertebrates (fish) will be studied as well. Using this approach, we hope to construct a "cognitive phylogeny" to allow us to determine when particular cognitive abilities evolved in the vertebrate lineage. Furthermore, we will determine the degree to which human capabilities are unique to language, or shared across domains such as music and visual art. |
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| responsibles | Kern |
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