Trace:
Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
| Both sides previous revisionPrevious revisionNext revision | Previous revision | ||
| frank_tenenbaum_2011 [2016/02/06 18:36] – silvia | frank_tenenbaum_2011 [2016/02/08 15:48] (current) – silvia | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
| ---- | ---- | ||
| **Introduction: | **Introduction: | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| \\ | \\ | ||
| **1. Introduction: | **1. Introduction: | ||
| Line 122: | Line 123: | ||
| \\ | \\ | ||
| **Models** | **Models** | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | The hypothesis space is constant | ||
| + | across all three models, but the inference procedure | ||
| + | varies depending on the assumptions of each model. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Our approach is to make the simplest possible assumptions | ||
| + | about representational components, including the | ||
| + | structure of the hypothesis space and the prior on hypotheses. | ||
| + | As a consequence, | ||
| + | is too simple to describe the structure of interesting phenomena | ||
| + | in natural language, and our priors do not capture | ||
| + | any of the representational biases that human learners | ||
| + | may brings to language acquisition. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Nevertheless, | ||
| + | articulating the principles of generalization underlying | ||
| + | experimental results on rule learning. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | **2.1. Hypothesis space** | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | This hypothesis space is based | ||
| + | on the idea of a rule as a restriction on strings. We define | ||
| + | the set of strings S as the set of ordered triples of elements | ||
| + | s1, s2, s3 where all s are members of vocabulary of elements, | ||
| + | V. There are thus |V|3 possible elements in S. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | For each set of simulations, | ||
| + | of string elements used in a particular experiment. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | For example, in Marcus et al (1999): set of elements S = {ga, gi, ta, ti, na, ni, la, li}. These elements | ||
| + | are treated by our models as unique identifiers that do not | ||
| + | encode any information about phonetic relationships between | ||
| + | syllables. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | A rule defines a subset of S. Rules are written as ordered | ||
| + | triples of primitive functions (f1, f2, f3). Each function operates | ||
| + | over an element in the corresponding position in a | ||
| + | string and returns a truth value. For example, f1 defines a | ||
| + | restriction on the first string element, x1. The set F of functions | ||
| + | is a set which for our simulations includes ^ (a function | ||
| + | which is always true of any element) and a set of | ||
| + | functions is y(x) which are only true if x = y where y is a | ||
| + | particular element. The majority of the experiments addressed | ||
| + | here make use of only one other function: the | ||
| + | identity function =a which is true if x = xa. For example, in | ||
| + | Marcus et al. (1999), learners heard strings like ga ti ti | ||
| + | and ni la la, which are consistent with (^, ^, =2) (ABB, or ‘‘second | ||
| + | and third elements equal’’). The stimuli in that experiment | ||
| + | were also consistent with another regularity, | ||
| + | however: (^,^,^), which is true of any string in S. One additional | ||
| + | set of experiments makes use of musical stimuli | ||
| + | for which the functions >a and <a (higher than and lower | ||
| + | than) are defined. They are true when x > xa and x < xa | ||
| + | respectively. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | **Model 1: //single rule//** | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Model 1 begins with the framework for generalization | ||
| + | introduced by Tenenbaum and Griffiths (2001). It uses exact | ||
| + | Bayesian inference to calculate the posterior probability | ||
| + | of a particular rule r given the observed set of training | ||
| + | sentences T = t1 . . . tm. This probability can be factored via | ||
| + | Bayes’ rule into the product of the likelihood of the training | ||
| + | data being generated by a particular rule p(T|r), and a prior | ||
| + | probability of that rule p(r), normalized by the sum of | ||
| + | these over all rules: | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | {{ :: | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | We assume a uniform prior p(r) = 1/|R|, meaning that no | ||
| + | rule is a priori more probable than any other. For human | ||
| + | learners the prior over rules is almost certainly not uniform | ||
| + | and could contain important biases about the kinds of | ||
| + | structures that are used preferentially in human language | ||
| + | (whether these biases are learned or innate, domaingeneral | ||
| + | or domain-specific). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | We assume that training examples are generated by | ||
| + | sampling uniformly from the set of sentences that are congruent | ||
| + | with one rule. This assumption is referred to as | ||
| + | strong sampling, and leads to the size principle: the probability | ||
| + | of a particular string being generated by a particular | ||
| + | rule is inversely proportional to the total number of strings | ||
| + | that are congruent with that rule (which we notate |r|). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | **Model 2: //single rule under noise//** | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Model 1 assumed that every data point must be accounted | ||
| + | for by the learner’s hypothesis. However, there | ||
| + | are many reasons this might not hold for human learners: | ||
| + | the learner’s rules could permit exceptions, the data could | ||
| + | be perceived noisily such that a training example might | ||
| + | be lost or mis-heard, or data could be perceived correctly | ||
| + | but not remembered at test. Model 2 attempts to account | ||
| + | for these sources of uncertainty by consolidating them all | ||
| + | within a single parameter. While future research will almost | ||
| + | certainly differentiate these factors (for an example | ||
| + | of this kind of work, see Frank, Goldwater, Griffiths, & | ||
| + | Tenenbaum, 2010), here we consolidate them for | ||
| + | simplicity. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | To add noise to the input data, we add an additional | ||
| + | step to the generative process: after strings are sampled | ||
| + | from the set consistent with a particular rule, we flip a | ||
| + | biased coin with weight a. With probability a, the string | ||
| + | remains the same, while with probability 1 - a, the string | ||
| + | is replaced with another randomly chosen element. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Under Model 1, a rule had likelihood zero if any string in | ||
| + | the set T was inconsistent with it. With any appreciable level | ||
| + | of input uncertainty, | ||
| + | in nearly all rules having probability zero. To deal with | ||
| + | this issue, we assume in Model 2 that learners know that | ||
| + | their memory is fallible, and that strings may be misremembered | ||
| + | with probability 1 - a. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | {{ : | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | **Model 3: //multiple rules under noise//** | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Model 3 loosens an additional assumption: that all the | ||
| + | strings in the input data are the product of a single rule. Instead, | ||
| + | it considers the possibility that there are multiple | ||
| + | rules, each consistent with a subset of the training data. | ||
| + | We encode a weak bias to have fewer rules via a prior | ||
| + | probability distribution that favors more compact partitions | ||
| + | of the input. This prior is known as a Chinese Restaurant | ||
| + | Process (CRP) prior (Rasmussen, 2000); it introduces a | ||
| + | second free parameter, c, which controls the bias over clusterings. | ||
| + | A low value of c encodes a bias that there are likely | ||
| + | to be many small clusters, while a high value of c encodes a | ||
| + | bias that there are likely to be a small number of large | ||
| + | clusters. | ||
| + | The joint probability of the training data T and a partition | ||
| + | Z of those strings into rule clusters is given by | ||
| + | P(T,Z) = P(T|Z)P(Z) | ||
| + | neglecting the parameters a and c. The probability of a | ||
| + | clustering P(Z) is given by CRP(Z,c). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Unlike in Models 1 and 2, inference by exact enumeration | ||
| + | is not possible and so we are not able to compute the | ||
| + | normalizing constant. But we are still able to compute the | ||
| + | relative posterior probability of a partition of strings into | ||
| + | clusters (and hence the posterior probability distribution | ||
| + | over rules for that cluster). Thus, we can use a Markovchain | ||
| + | Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme to find the posterior | ||
| + | distribution over partitions. In practice we use a Gibbs | ||
| + | sampler, an MCMC method for drawing repeated samples | ||
| + | from the posterior probability distribution via iteratively | ||
| + | testing all possible cluster assignments for each string | ||
| + | (MacKay, 2003). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | In all simulations we calculate the posterior probability | ||
| + | distribution over rules given the set of unique string types | ||
| + | used in the experimental stimuli. We use types rather than | ||
| + | rather than individual string tokens because a number of | ||
| + | computational and experimental investigations have suggested | ||
| + | that types rather than tokens may be a psychologically | ||
| + | natural unit for generalization (Gerken & Bollt, 2008; | ||
| + | Goldwater, Griffiths, & Johnson, 2006; Richtsmeier, | ||
| + | & Ohala, in press). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | To assess the probability of a set of test items | ||
| + | E = e1 . . . en (again computed over types rather than tokens) | ||
| + | after a particular training sequence, we calculate the total | ||
| + | probability that those items would be generated under a | ||
| + | particular posterior distribution over hypotheses. This | ||
| + | probability is | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | {{ :: | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | which is the product over examples of the probability of a | ||
| + | particular example, summed across the posterior distribution | ||
| + | over rules p(R|T). For Model 1 we compute p(ek|rj) | ||
| + | using Eq. (2); for Models 2 and 3 we use Eq. (4). | ||
| + | We use surprisal as our main measure linking posterior | ||
| + | probabilities to the results of looking time studies. Surprisal | ||
| + | (negative log probability) is an information-theoretic | ||
| + | measure of how unlikely a particular outcome is. It has | ||
| + | been used previously to model adult reaction time data | ||
| + | in sentence processing tasks (Hale, 2001; Levy, 2008) as | ||
| + | well as infant looking times (Frank, Goodman, & | ||
| + | Tenenbaum, 2009). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | **Results** | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | {{ : | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| \\ | \\ | ||
| ---- | ---- | ||
| **Conclusions: | **Conclusions: | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | The infant language learning literature has often been | ||
| + | framed around the question ‘‘rules or statistics? | ||
| + | that this is the wrong question. Even if infants represent | ||
| + | symbolic rules with relations like identity—and there | ||
| + | is every reason to believe they do—there is still the question | ||
| + | of how they learn these rules, and how they converge | ||
| + | on the correct rule so quickly in a large hypothesis space. | ||
| + | This challenge requires statistics for guiding generalization | ||
| + | from sparse data. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | from sparse data. | ||
| + | In our work here we have shown how domain-general | ||
| + | statistical inference principles operating over minimal | ||
| + | rule-like representations can explain a broad set of results | ||
| + | in the rule learning literature. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | The inferential principles encoded in our models—the | ||
| + | size principle (or in its more general form, Bayesian Occam’s | ||
| + | razor) and the non-parametric tradeoff between | ||
| + | complexity and fit to data encoded in the Chinese Restaurant | ||
| + | Process—are not only useful in modeling rule learning | ||
| + | within simple artificial languages. They are also the same | ||
| + | principles that are used in computational systems for natural | ||
| + | language processing that are engineered to scale to | ||
| + | large datasets. These principle have been applied to tasks | ||
| + | as varied as unsupervised word segmentation (Brent, | ||
| + | 1999; Goldwater, Griffiths, & Johnson, 2009), morphology | ||
| + | learning (Albright & Hayes, 2003; Goldwater et al., 2006; | ||
| + | Goldsmith, 2001), and grammar induction (Bannard, | ||
| + | Lieven, & Tomasello, 2009; Klein & Manning, 2005; Perfors, | ||
| + | Tenenbaum, & Regier, 2006). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | First, our models assumed the minimal machinery | ||
| + | needed to capture a range of findings. Rather than making | ||
| + | a realistic guess about the structure of the hypothesis | ||
| + | space for rule learning, where evidence was limited we assumed | ||
| + | the simplest possible structure. For example, | ||
| + | although there is some evidence that infants may not always | ||
| + | encode absolute positions (Lewkowicz & Berent, | ||
| + | 2009), there have been few rule learning studies that go | ||
| + | beyond three-element strings. We therefore defined our | ||
| + | rules based on absolute positions in fixed-length strings. | ||
| + | For the same reason, although previous work on adult concept | ||
| + | learning has used infinitely expressive hypothesis | ||
| + | spaces with prior distributions that penalize complexity | ||
| + | (e.g. Goodman, Tenenbaum, Feldman, & Griffiths, 2008; | ||
| + | Kemp, Goodman, & Tenenbaum, 2008), we chose a simple | ||
| + | uniform prior over rules instead. With the collection of | ||
| + | more data from infants, however, we expect that both | ||
| + | more complex hypothesis spaces and priors that prefer | ||
| + | simpler hypotheses will become necessary. | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Second, our models operated over unique string types | ||
| + | as input rather than individual tokens. This assumption | ||
| + | highlights an issue in interpreting the a parameter of Models | ||
| + | 2 and 3: there are likely different processes of forgetting | ||
| + | that happen over types and tokens. While individual tokens | ||
| + | are likely to be forgotten or misperceived with constant | ||
| + | probability, | ||
| + | misremembered or corrupted will grow smaller as more | ||
| + | tokens of that type are observed (Frank et al., 2010). An | ||
| + | interacting issue concerns serial position effects. Depending | ||
| + | on the location of identity regularities within sequences, | ||
| + | rules vary in the ease with which they can be | ||
| + | learned (Endress, Scholl, & Mehler, 2005; Johnson et al., | ||
| + | 2009). Both of these sets of effects could likely be captured | ||
| + | by a better understanding of how limits on memory interact | ||
| + | with the principles underlying rule learning. Although a | ||
| + | model that operates only over types may be appropriate | ||
| + | for experiments in which each type is nearly always heard | ||
| + | the same number of times, models that deal with linguistic | ||
| + | data must include processes that operate over both types | ||
| + | and tokens (Goldwater et al., 2006; Johnson, Griffiths, & | ||
| + | Goldwater, 2007). | ||
| + | \\ | ||
| + | Finally, though the domain-general principles we have | ||
| + | identified here do capture many results, there is some | ||
| + | additional evidence for domain-specific effects. Learners | ||
| + | may acquire expectations for the kinds of regularities that | ||
| + | appear in domains like music compared with those that | ||
| + | appear in speech (Dawson & Gerken, 2009); in addition, a | ||
| + | number of papers have described a striking dissociation | ||
| + | between the kinds of regularities that can be learned from | ||
| + | vowels and those that can be learned from consonants | ||
| + | (Bonatti, Peña, Nespor, & Mehler, 2005; Toro, Nespor, | ||
| + | Mehler, & Bonatti, 2008). Both sets of results point to a | ||
| + | need for a hierarchical approach to rule learning, in which | ||
| + | knowledge of what kinds of regularities are possible in a | ||
| + | domain can itself be learned from the evidence. Only | ||
| + | through further empirical and computational work can | ||
| + | we understand which of these effects can be explained | ||
| + | through acquired domain expectations and which are best | ||
| + | explained as innate domain-specific biases or constraints. | ||
| \\ | \\ | ||