Skip to main content

On a Computational Model for Language Acquisition: Modeling Cross-Speaker Generalisation

  • Conference paper
Text, Speech and Dialogue (TSD 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 5729))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The discovery of words by young infants involves two interrelated processes: (a) the detection of recurrent word-like acoustic patterns in the speech signal, and (b) cross-modal association between auditory and visual information. This paper describes experimental results obtained by a computational model that simulates these two processes. The model is able to build word-like representations on the basis of multimodal input data (stimuli) without the help of an a priori specified lexicon. Each input stimulus consists of a speech signal accompanied by an abstract visual representation of the concepts referred to in the speech signal. In this paper we investigate how internal representations generalize across speakers. In doing so, we also analyze the cognitive plausibility of the model.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bellegarda, J.R.: Exploiting Latent Semantic Information for Statistical Language Modeling. Proc. IEEE 88, 1279–1296 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Van hamme, H.: Integration of Asynchronous Knowledge Sources in a Novel Speech Recognition Framework, ISCA ITRW, Speech Analysis and Processing for Knowledge Discovery (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  3. ten Bosch, L., Van Hamme, H., Boves, L.: Unsupervised detection of words - questioning the relevance of segmentation. In: ISCA ITRW, Speech Analysis and Processing for Knowledge Discovery (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  4. ten Bosch, L., Boves, L.: Language acquisition: The emergence of words from multimodal input. In: Sojka, P., Horák, A., Kopeček, I., Pala, K. (eds.) TSD 2008. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5246, pp. 261–268. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. ten Bosch, L., Van Hamme, H., Boves, L.: Discovery of words: Towards a computational model of language acquisition. In: Mihelic, F., Zibert, J. (eds.) Speech Recogition: Technologies and Applications, pp. 205–224. I-Tech Education and Publishing KG, Vienna (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  6. ten Bosch, L., Van Hamme, H., Boves, L.: A computational model of language acquisition: focus on word discovery. In: Proc. Interspeech 2008, pp. 2570–2573 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Boves, L., ten Bosch, L., Moore, R.: ACORNS - towards computational modeling of communication and recognition skills. In: Proceedings IEEE-ICCI 2007 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Driesen, J., Van Hamme, H.: personal communication

    Google Scholar 

  9. Goldinger, S.D.: Echoes of echoes? An episodic theory of lexical access. Psychological Review 105, 251–279 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hoyer, P.O.: Non-negative matrix factorization with sparseness constraints. Journal of Machine Learning Research 5, 1457–1469 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Houston, D.M., Jusczyk, P.W.: The role of talker-specific information in word segmentation by infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance 26, 1570–1582 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Jusczyk, P.W., Aslin, R.N.: Infants’ detection of the sound patterns of words in fluent speech. Cognitive Psychology 29, 1–23 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Kuhl, P.K.: Early language acquisition: cracking the speech code. Nat. Rev. Neuroscience 5, 831–843 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Lee, D.D., Seung, H.S.: Algorithms for non-negative matrix factorization. In: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, vol. 13 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Lippmann, R.: Speech Recognition by Human and Machines. Speech Communication 22, 1–14 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. McQueen, J.M., Cutler, A., Norris, D.: Phonological abstraction in the mental lexicon. Cognitive Science 30, 1113–1126 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Newman, R.S.: The level of detail in infants’ word learning. Current directions in Psychological Science 17(3), 229–232 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Roy, D.K., Pentland, A.P.: Learning words from sights and sounds: a computational model. Cognitive Science 26, 113–146 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Singh, L., Morgan, J.L., White, K.S.: Preference and processing: The role of speech affect in early spoken word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language 51, 173–189 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Smith, L., Yu, C.: Infants rapidly learn word-referent mappings via cross-situational statistics. Cognition 106(2008), 1558–1568 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Sroka, J.J., Braida, L.D.: Human and machine consonant recognition. Speech Communication 44, 401–423 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Stouten, V., Demuynck, K.: Van hamme, H.: Automatically Learning the Units of Speech by Non-negative Matrix Factorisation. In: Interspeech 2007, Antwerp, Belgium (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  23. http://www.acorns-project.org

  24. http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/cdi/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

ten Bosch, L., Driesen, J., Van hamme, H., Boves, L. (2009). On a Computational Model for Language Acquisition: Modeling Cross-Speaker Generalisation. In: Matoušek, V., Mautner, P. (eds) Text, Speech and Dialogue. TSD 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5729. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04208-9_44

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04208-9_44

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04207-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04208-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics