Papers by Brian MacWhinney
The FaCT (Fact and Concept Training) System provides a general platform for delivering practice i... more The FaCT (Fact and Concept Training) System provides a general platform for delivering practice in the form of discrete flashcard-like drills. The system optimizes practice schedules according to model-based predictions and can be used to deliver various types of assessment. The system's features satisfy the real world goals of educators using a theory-driven approach that gives researchers control over the model of practice delivery. For educators it provides web deployment, automatic reporting of student practice and assessment, and the ability to tailor content for specific curricular needs. For researchers it provides data export to MySQL, pluggable model architecture, and generalized model fitting algorithms.
Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 2007
The FaCT (Fact and Concept Training) System provides a general platform for delivering practice i... more The FaCT (Fact and Concept Training) System provides a general platform for delivering practice in the form of discrete flashcard-like drills. The system optimizes practice schedules according to model-based predictions and can be used to deliver various types of assessment. The system's features satisfy the real world goals of educators using a theory-driven approach that gives researchers control over the model of practice delivery. For educators it provides web deployment, automatic reporting of student practice and ...
How to best sequence instruction in a collection of basic facts is a problem often faced by intel... more How to best sequence instruction in a collection of basic facts is a problem often faced by intelligent tutoring systems. To solve this problem, the following work details two tests of a system to provide drill practice (test trials with feedback) for foreign language vocabulary learning using a practice schedule determined to be optimal according to a cognitive model. In the first test, students chose between an optimized version and a version that merely cycled the vocabulary items. Examination of the time on task data revealed a preference for practice based on the decisions of the cognitive model. In the second test, the system was used to train the component parts of Chinese characters and measure the transfer of knowledge to subsequent learning of Chinese characters. Chinese character learning was improved for students with the relevant optimized training.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008
Language Learning, 2011
Learning the Chinese tone system is a major challenge to students of Chinese as a second or forei... more Learning the Chinese tone system is a major challenge to students of Chinese as a second or foreign language. Part of the problem is that the spoken Chinese syllable presents a complex perceptual input that overlaps tone with segments. This complexity can be addressed through directing attention to the critical features of a component (tone in this case) within a complex perceptual input stimulus. We tested hypotheses based on this feature-focusing assumption in an in vivo classroom setting. First-year students in a Chinese language program at a U.S. university were trained to identify the tones of 228 syllables learned across eight lessons in the first semester. Three learning conditions were designed to support tone learning by presenting (a) visual pitch contours that depict the acoustic shape of the tones, together with pinyin spelling of the spoken syllables (Contour + Pinyin condition); (b) numbers that represent the tones in traditional computer interface, together with pinyin spelling of the spoken syllables (Number + Pinyin condition); and (c) visual pitch contours without pinyin spelling (Contour Only condition). Analyses of student activity logs (learning curves) and pretests and posttests showed significant effects of learning condition. The results suggested that the Contour + Pinyin condition had more error reduction in tone recognition over the activity log than the Contour Only condition and greater improvement from the pretest to posttest than the Number + Pinyin condition. These findings point at the value of separate support for the two major components (tone and segments) of a tonal language.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008
How to best sequence instruction in a collection of basic facts is a problem often faced by intel... more How to best sequence instruction in a collection of basic facts is a problem often faced by intelligent tutoring systems. To solve this problem, the following work details two tests of a system to provide drill practice (test trials with feedback) for foreign language vocabulary learning using a practice schedule determined to be optimal according to a cognitive model. In the first test, students chose between an optimized version and a version that merely cycled the vocabulary items. Examination of the time on task data revealed a preference for practice based on the decisions of the cognitive model. In the second test, the system was used to train the component parts of Chinese characters and measure the transfer of knowledge to subsequent learning of Chinese characters. Chinese character learning was improved for students with the relevant optimized training.
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders
The purpose of this study was to investigate the sentence comprehension strategies used by childr... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the sentence comprehension strategies used by children w ith expressive and expressive-receptive speci c language impairments (SLI ) within a language processing framework. Fourteen children with SLI (ages 6;10-7;11) meeting strict selection criteria were compared to seven age-m atched and seven younger normal controls. Children were asked to determine the agent in sentences composed of two nouns and a verb ( NVN, NNV, VNN ) with animacy of the noun as a second factor. Results of group comparisons revealed that children with E-SLI and ER-SLI diV ered from each other in the comprehension strategies they employed as well as diV ering from both age-m atched and younger normal language control groups. Children with E-SLI relied exclusively on a rst noun as agent strategy across all conditions, whereas children with ER-SLI used animacy cues when available. Addit ionally, maximum likelihood estimates were calculated to investigate individual patterns of performance under diV erent cue conditions. Results revealed a sign i cant correlation between severity of receptive language abilities and the type of strategy used, with better receptive language skills being highly correlated with children's use of word order cues.
Language is a unique hallmark of the human species. Although many species can communicate about t... more Language is a unique hallmark of the human species. Although many species can communicate about things that are physically present, only humans can use communication to construct a full narrative characterization of events occurring outside of the here and now. The religions of the world have interpreted this unique endowment as a Special Gift bestowed directly by the Creator. Scientists have also been influenced by this view of language, often attributing the emergence of language to some single, pivotal event in human evolution. The idea of linking language evolution to the emergence of a single Special Gift is certainly quite attractive, since it would account for so many facts in linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience through some single, simple mechanism. The Special Gift view runs into a variety of problems, however, when we glance over the full landscape of six million years of human evolution. During this period, the hominid lineage has undergone a remarkable series of adaptations involving a straightening of upright posture, development of an opposing thumb, changes in the birth process (Hockett & Ascher, 1964), loss of hair (Morgan, 1997), adaptation of the gastrointestinal tract, increased innervation of the intercostal muscles (MacLarnon & Hewitt, 1999), loss of pronounced canine teeth, bending of the vocal tract, refinement of the facial musculature, freeing of the vocal folds, and sharpening of the chin. These morphological changes have been accompanied by a gradual tripling of brain size (Holloway, 1995) which has brought massive changes in the interconnectedness of the frontal lobes, changes in the linkage of vocal production to motor and emotional areas, linkages of the visual areas to motor areas, and expansion of many older areas, including the cerebellum, basal ganglion, and thalamus. Alongside these changes in morphology and neurology, human society has undergone a parallel process of development involving the expansion of social groups, the refinement of warfare, the development of tools, and the emergence of language. Faced with evidence that evolution has effected so many detailed changes, adherents of the Special Gift approach will argue that one single change or process has been pivotal and the other changes are either unrelated to language emergence or else necessary
In Herbst, Thomas (Ed.) Valency in Linguistic Theory This paper presents an account of first lang... more In Herbst, Thomas (Ed.) Valency in Linguistic Theory This paper presents an account of first language acquisition based on the child's learning of item-based patterns (IBPs). These patterns involve grammatical dependencies between a lexical predicate (such as more) and its arguments (such as milk) to form a new cluster (such as more milk). Children can use simple, systematic inductive operations to acquire these patterns, and then to generalize them into fuller feature-based and global constructions. Together, these patterns can provide a full account of the learning of syntax. Recent work uses this framework to construct computational simulations of children's syntactic development that match up well with extensive, publicly available, corpus data from the CHILDES database.
Unified Competition Model 2 The Competition Model stands as one Elizabeth Bates' major theoretica... more Unified Competition Model 2 The Competition Model stands as one Elizabeth Bates' major theoretical contributions to psycholinguistics. It was my honor to work with her for over twenty years in the development of this model from our first co-authored paper in 1978 up through our applications of the model to second language and aphasia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The classic version of the model can be found in the volume that we co-edited in 1989 {MacWhinney, 1989 #5822}. Recently Bates, Devescovi, & Wulfeck {, 2001 #9699} have summarized a wide range of newly accumulated data, particularly on the application of the model to crosslinguistic studies of aphasia. In addition, a recent article by Dick et al. {, 2001 #9700} shows how the comparison of normals and aphasics in a Competition Model framework can illuminate the issue of the distributed nature of language localization in the brain.
Developmental Review
ABSTRACT
We describe an annotation scheme for syntactic information in the CHILDES database , which contai... more We describe an annotation scheme for syntactic information in the CHILDES database , which contains several megabytes of transcribed dialogs between parents and children. The annotation scheme is based on grammatical relations (GRs) that are composed of bilexical dependencies (between a head and a dependent) labeled with the name of the relation involving the two words (such as subject, object and adjunct). We also discuss automatic annotation using our syntactic annotation scheme.
Humans demonstrate a remarkable ability to take other people's perspectives. When we watch movies... more Humans demonstrate a remarkable ability to take other people's perspectives. When we watch movies, we fi nd ourselves identifying with the actors, sensing their joys, hopes, fears, and sorrows. As viewers, we can be moved to exhilaration as we watch our heroes overcome obstacles; or we can be moved to tears when they suff er losses and defeats. Th is process of identifi cation does not always have to be linked to intense emotional involvement. At a soccer match, we can follow the movements of a player moving in to shoot for a goal. We can identify with the player's position, stance, and maneuvers against the challenges off ered by the defenders. We can track the actions, as the player drives toward the goal and kicks the ball into the net. Th is ability to take the perspective of another person is very general. Just as we follow the movements of dancers, actors, and athletes, we can also follow the thoughts and emotions expressed by others in language. In this paper, we will explore the ways in which language builds upon our basic system for projecting the body image to support a rich system of perspective tracking and mental model construction.
Handbook of the Neuroscience of Language, 2008
It is tempting to think of the brain as functioning very much like a computer. Like the digital c... more It is tempting to think of the brain as functioning very much like a computer. Like the digital computer, the brain takes in data and outputs decisions and conclusions. However, unlike the computer, the brain does not store precise memories at specifi c locations. Instead, the brain reaches decisions through the dynamic interaction of diverse areas operating in functional neural circuits. The role of specifi c local areas in these functional neural circuits appears to be highly fl exible and dynamic. Recent work has begun to provide detailed accounts of both the overall circuits supporting language and the detailed computations provided in smaller neural areas. These accounts take the shape of both structured and emergent models. Just, M.A., & Varma, S. (2007). The organization of thinking: what functional brain imaging reveals about the neuroarchitecture of complex cognition. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience , 7, 153-191. This article compares three recent neurocomputational approaches that provide overall maps of high-level functional neural circuits for much of cognition. Miikkulainen , R. , Bednar , J.A. , Choe , Y. , & Sirosh , J. ( 2005 ) . Computational maps in the visual cortex . New York : Springer . This book shows how self-organizing feature maps can be used to describe many of the detailed results from the neuroscience of vision. Ullman , M. ( 2004 ) . Contributions of memory circuits to language: the declarative/procedural model . Cognition , 92 , 231 -270 . An interesting, albeit speculative, application of a neurocomputational model to issues in second language learning.
Advances in Psychology, 1992
Recent work has explored the application of the Competition Model (MacWhinney & Bates, 1989) to t... more Recent work has explored the application of the Competition Model (MacWhinney & Bates, 1989) to the study of second language acquisition. In making this extension, it is important to distinguish between transfer from L1 and direct learning of L2. Both processes can be analyzed in terms of the constructs of cue reliability, cue cost, and form-function mappings. The model predicts certain typical varieties of transfer during the process of phonological, syntactic, and lexical learning. In the attempt to maximize the transfer of L1 structures the learner uses a variety of complex learning strategies. In areas where transfer is poorly supported, the learner acquires L2 structures directly. Cue reliability and cue cost estimates can also be used to characterize the direct acquisition of L2 structures.
Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Foreign Language Learning, 1992
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Papers by Brian MacWhinney