TY - JOUR
T1 - Constructions as categories of language
AU - Goldberg, Adele E.
AU - Casenhiser, Devin
AU - White, Tiffani R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by NSF grant BCS 0613227 awarded to the first author.
PY - 2007/8
Y1 - 2007/8
N2 - What causes children to categorize distinct utterances they hear into a constructional generalization? That is, what makes subjects create a constructional category instead of treating each utterance as a distinct unrelated idiom? One simple factor that encourages the learning of abstract categories is shared concrete similarity. When instances share concrete attributes, learners are more likely to categorize them together, and moreover are more likely to attend to their abstract commonalities [Gentner, D., & Medina, J. (1998). Similarity and the development rules. Cognition, 66, 236-297; Markman, A.B., & Gentner D. (1993). Splitting the difference: A structural alignment view of similarity. Journal of Memory and Language, 32, 517-535]. This paper reports results that confirm the prediction that presentation of items with concrete shared similarity early in training enhances language learning in adults.
AB - What causes children to categorize distinct utterances they hear into a constructional generalization? That is, what makes subjects create a constructional category instead of treating each utterance as a distinct unrelated idiom? One simple factor that encourages the learning of abstract categories is shared concrete similarity. When instances share concrete attributes, learners are more likely to categorize them together, and moreover are more likely to attend to their abstract commonalities [Gentner, D., & Medina, J. (1998). Similarity and the development rules. Cognition, 66, 236-297; Markman, A.B., & Gentner D. (1993). Splitting the difference: A structural alignment view of similarity. Journal of Memory and Language, 32, 517-535]. This paper reports results that confirm the prediction that presentation of items with concrete shared similarity early in training enhances language learning in adults.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34249704573&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=34249704573&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2007.02.003
DO - 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2007.02.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34249704573
SN - 0732-118X
VL - 25
SP - 70
EP - 86
JO - New Ideas in Psychology
JF - New Ideas in Psychology
IS - 2
ER -