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Luca Onnis

University of Oslo, Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, Faculty Member

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Papers by Luca Onnis

Is the Mind Inherently Predicting? Exploring Forward and Backward Looking in Language Processing

Prediction is one characteristic of the human mind. But what does it mean to say the mind is a "p... more Prediction is one characteristic of the human mind. But what does it mean to say the mind is a "prediction machine" and inherently forward looking as is frequently claimed? In natural languages, many contexts are not easily predictable in a forward fashion. In English, for example, many frequent verbs do not carry unique meaning on their own but instead, rely on another word or words that follow them to become meaningful. Upon reading take a the processor often cannot easily predict walk as the next word. But the system can "look back" and integrate walk more easily when it follows take a (e.g., as opposed to *make|get|have a walk). In the present paper, we provide further evidence for the importance of both forward and backward-looking in language processing. In two self-paced reading tasks and an eye-tracking reading task, we found evidence that adult English native speakers' sensitivity to word forward and backward conditional probability significantly predicted reading times over and above psycholinguistic predictors of reading latencies. We conclude that both forward and backwardlooking (prediction and integration) appear to be important characteristics of language processing. Our results thus suggest that it makes just as much sense to call the mind an "integration machine" which is inherently backward 'looking.'

Can prediction and retrodiction explain whether frequent multi-word phrases are accessed 'precompiled' from memory or compositionally constructed on the fly

by Luca Onnis and Luca Onnis

Brain Research, 2021

An important debate on the architecture of the language faculty has been the extent to which it r... more An important debate on the architecture of the language faculty has been the extent to which it relies on a compositional system that constructs larger units from morphemes to words to phrases to utterances on the fly and in real time using grammatical rules; or a system that chunks large preassembled, stored units of language from memory; or some combination of both approaches. Good empirical evidence exists for both 'computed' and 'large stored' forms in language, but little is known about what shapes multi-word storage/ access or compositional processing. Here we explored whether predictive and retrodictive processes are a likely determinant of multi-word storage/ processing. Our results suggest that forward and backward predictability are independently informative in determining the lexical cohesiveness of multi-word phrases. In addition, our results call for a reevaluation of the role of retrodiction in contemporary language processing accounts (cf. Ferreira and Chantavarin, 2018).

Extra-linguistic modulation of the English noun-bias: evidence from Malaysian bilingual infants and toddlers

Early vocabularies typically contain more nouns than verbs. Yet, the strength of this noun-bias v... more Early vocabularies typically contain more nouns than verbs. Yet, the strength of this noun-bias varies across languages and cultures. Two main theories have aimed at explaining such variations; either that the relative importance of nouns vs. verbs is specific to the language itself, or that extra-linguistic factors shape early vocabulary structures. To address this debate, the present study compares the relative distribution of verbs and nouns within the same language—English—between Malay–English and Mandarin–English bilingual infants and toddlers. The English receptive lexicons of Mandarin–English bilingual children contained more verbs than those of Malay–English bilinguals, suggesting that the noun-bias is modulated by factors external to English. We discuss the potential role of socio-cultural differences on the composition of children early vocabularies.

Properties of child-directed speech in bilingual parents

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2021

How parents talk to young children matters to language and cognitive development. In the early ye... more How parents talk to young children matters to language and cognitive development. In the early years the quantity, quality, and diversity inherent in language from parents in the home predict differences in vocabulary knowledge, school readiness, and later academic achievement. However, most of what is known about child-directed speech (CDS) comes from studies of monolingual parents, and little is known about features of speech from bilingual parents. Here, we asked whether degree of bilingualism assessed within a single parent might be positively associated with CDS features that are known to facilitate children’s lexical and grammatical structures across languages – parental partial repetitions. During unscripted narrations (n = 91) of a picture book to their toddlers in English, mothers who reported being more bilingually balanced used a higher proportion of self-repetitions (both single words and 2-word combinations) within a brief time-frame. At the same time, more bilingual mo...

Multiple-cue-driven computations in speech processing

UC Merced Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title Reduction of Uncertainty in Human Sequential Learning: Evidence from Artificial Grammar Learning Publication Date Reduction of Uncertainty in Human Sequential Learning: Evidence from Artificial Grammar Learning

Research on statistical learning in adults and infants has shown that humans are particularly sen... more Research on statistical learning in adults and infants has shown that humans are particularly sensitive to statistical properties of the input. Early experiments in artificial grammar learning, for instance, show a sensitivity for transitional n-gram probabilities. It has been argued, however, that this source of information may not help in detecting nonadjacent dependencies, in the presence of substantial variability of the intervening material, thus suggesting a different focus of attention involving change versus non-change (Gómez, 2002). Following Gómez proposal, we contend that alternative sources of information may be attended to simultaneously by learners, in an attempt to reduce uncertainty. With several potential cues in competition, performance crucially depends on which cue is strong enough to be relied upon. By carefully manipulating the statistical environment it is possible to weigh the contribution of each cue. Several implications for the field of statistical learnin...

UC Merced Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title Language-induced Biases on Human Sequential Learning Permalink Publication Date Language-induced Biases on Human Sequential Learning

What are the effects of experience on subsequent learning? We explored the effects of language-sp... more What are the effects of experience on subsequent learning? We explored the effects of language-specific word order knowledge on the acquisition of sequential conditional information. Korean and English adults were engaged in a sequence learning task involving three different sets of stimuli: auditory linguistic (nonsense syllables), visual non-linguistic (nonsense shapes), and auditory non-linguistic (pure tones). The forward and backward probabilities between adjacent elements generated two equally probable and orthogonal perceptual parses of the elements, such that any significant preference at test must be due to either general cognitive biases, or prior language-induced biases. We found that language modulated parsing preferences with the linguistic stimuli only. Intriguingly, these preferences are congruent with the dominant word order patterns of each language, as corroborated by corpus analyses. These findings suggest that mechanisms of statistical sequential learning are imp...

1 Acquisition and Evolution of Natural Language 134 Acquisition and Evolution of quasi-regular languages: Two puzzles for the price of one. Abstract

The quasi-productivity of natural languages appears to pose two difficult problems for language r... more The quasi-productivity of natural languages appears to pose two difficult problems for language research. Firstly, why do irregularities in natural language not disappear over time, leaving languages completely regular (a transmission problem), and secondly, how did such irregularity arise in the first place (an emergence problem)? To address the transmission problem, we present an artificial, simplicity-based learner capable of acquiring quasi-regular structures. In doing so, we present an explicitly psychological model of a famously problematic aspect of language acquisition known as Baker’s Paradox. We present several simulations of an Iterated Learning Model (ILM) illustrating the emergence and stability of quasi-regular irregularities using a rudimentary language. These simulations offer a possible resolution to the emergence problem. Other possible resolutions are discussed.

Can prediction and retrodiction explain whether frequent multi-word phrases are accessed ’precompiled’ from memory or compositionally constructed on the fly?

Brain Research, 2021

An important debate on the architecture of the language faculty has been the extent to which it r... more An important debate on the architecture of the language faculty has been the extent to which it relies on a compositional system that constructs larger units from morphemes to words to phrases to utterances on the fly and in real time using grammatical rules; or a system that chunks large preassembled, stored units of language from memory; or some combination of both approaches. Good empirical evidence exists for both 'computed' and 'large stored' forms in language, but little is known about what shapes multi-word storage / access or compositional processing. Here we explored whether predictive and retrodictive processes are a likely determinant of multi-word storage / processing. Our results suggest that forward and backward predictability are independently informative in determining the lexical cohesiveness of multi-word phrases. In addition, our results call for a reevaluation of the role of retrodiction in contemporary language processing accounts (cf. (Ferreira and Chantavarin, 2018)).

Local versus Global Statistical Learning in Language

A generally held assumption about human statistical learning is that learners keep track of the g... more A generally held assumption about human statistical learning is that learners keep track of the global statistics of the elements of interest across the entire set of stimuli they are exposed to. In naturalistic settings, this assumption is problematic because it requires that the cognitive system keep track of an exponentially growing number of relations while determining which of those relations are relevant and which are not. We investigated a more plausible assumption, namely, that statistical learning proceeds incrementally, using small windows of opportunity in which the relevant relations are assumed to hold over temporally contiguous objects or events. This local statistical learning hypothesis was tested on two learning tasks, one involving non-adjacent structures and the other -- novel word-to-world mappings. Our results suggest that human subjects make use of simple general-purpose cognitive heuristics that exploit temporal contiguity and contrast, leading to superior lea...

Language development and disorders: Possible genes and environment interactions

Research in developmental disabilities, 2018

Language development requires both basic cognitive mechanisms for learning language and a rich so... more Language development requires both basic cognitive mechanisms for learning language and a rich social context from which learning takes off. Disruptions in learning mechanisms, processing abilities, and/or social interactions increase the risks associated with social exclusion or developmental delays. Given the complexity of language processes, a multilevel approach is proposed where both cognitive mechanisms, genetic and environmental factors need to be probed together with their possible interactions. Here we review and discuss such interplay between environment and genetic predispositions in understanding language disorders, with a particular focus on a possible endophenotype, the ability for statistical sequential learning.

Early developing syntactic knowledge influences sequential statistical learning in infancy

Journal of experimental child psychology, 2019

Adults' linguistic background influences their sequential statistical learning of an artifici... more Adults' linguistic background influences their sequential statistical learning of an artificial language characterized by conflicting forward-going and backward-going transitional probabilities. English-speaking adults favor backward-going transitional probabilities, consistent with the head-initial structure of English. Korean-speaking adults favor forward-going transitional probabilities, consistent with the head-final structure of Korean. These experiments assess when infants develop this directional bias. In the experiments, 7-month-old infants showed no bias for forward-going or backward-going regularities. By 13 months, however, English-learning infants favored backward-going transitional probabilities over forward-going transitional probabilities, consistent with English-speaking adults. This indicates that statistical learning rapidly adapts to the predominant syntactic structure of the native language. Such adaptation may facilitate subsequent learning by highlighting s...

Social Network Limits Language Complexity

Cognitive science, Jan 27, 2018

Natural languages vary widely in the degree to which they make use of nested compositional struct... more Natural languages vary widely in the degree to which they make use of nested compositional structure in their grammars. It has long been noted by linguists that the languages historically spoken in small communities develop much deeper levels of compositional embedding than those spoken by larger groups. Recently, this observation has been confirmed by a robust statistical analysis of the World Atlas of Language Structures. In order to examine this connection mechanistically, we propose an agent-based model that accounts for key cultural evolutionary features of language transfer and language change. We identify transitivity as a physical parameter of social networks critical for the evolution of compositional structure and the hierarchical patterning of scale-free distributions as inhibitory.

Caregiver communication to the child as moderator and mediator of genes for language

Behavioural Brain Research, 2017

Human language appears to be unique among natural communication systems, and such uniqueness impi... more Human language appears to be unique among natural communication systems, and such uniqueness impinges on both nature and nurture. Human babies are endowed with cognitive abilities that predispose them to learn language, and this process cannot operate in an impoverished environment. To be effectively complete the acquisition of human language in human children requires highly socialised forms of learning, scaffolded over years of prolonged and intense caretaker-child interactions. How genes and environment operate in shaping language is unknown. These two components have traditionally been considered as independent, and often pitted against each other in terms of the nature versus nurture debate. This perspective article considers how innate abilities and experience might instead work together. In particular, it envisages potential scenarios for research, in which early caregiver verbal and non-verbal attachment practices may mediate or moderate the expression of human genetic systems for language.

The bottleneck may be the solution, not the problem

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2016

As a highly consequential biological trait, a memory “bottleneck” cannot escape selection pressur... more As a highly consequential biological trait, a memory “bottleneck” cannot escape selection pressures. It must therefore co-evolve with other cognitive mechanisms rather than act as an independent constraint. Recent theory and an implemented model of language acquisition suggest that a limit on working memory may evolve to help learning. Furthermore, it need not hamper the use of language for communication.

Implicit learning of non-adjacent dependencies

Studies in Bilingualism, 2015

• 7-year-old's non-adjacent dependency learning in a foreign language tested • Children gave gram... more • 7-year-old's non-adjacent dependency learning in a foreign language tested • Children gave grammaticality judgments while electroencephalography was recorded • Brain responses revealed children's learning of non-adjacent dependencies • Brain responses after overnight retention showed different polarity • Children recollected dependencies after sleep associated with representation change

Human Language Processing: Connectionist Models

Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, 2006

the beginning of the list, followed by more complex, probably less common, characters. Within str... more the beginning of the list, followed by more complex, probably less common, characters. Within stroke count groups, the order is, essentially traditional. Hsu Shen's radical groups numbered as high as 800. Today, there are around 200 in use, depending on the dictionary. Over the centuries, Hsu Shen's indexing system has been simplified for ease of use. Most modern dictionaries use the simplified radical list developed in the Ming Dynasty (c. 1615). Several dictionaries prior to the Ming had reduced the radical count from Hsu Shen's approximately 800. Hsu Shen also included etymological information in the belief that this would be a useful memory aid. A current dictionary that provides this type of information is Chinese characters-a genealogy and dictionary. Hsu Shen's method has proved useful but raises its own problems. Many Chinese characters contain phonetic information, but the phonetic information may refer to pronunciations that are no longer current. Using stroke counts depends heavily on knowledge of traditional writing methods and on the fonts used. Small font sizes often make accurate stroke counts difficult, if not impossible, for complex characters. The Chinese language has prompted hosts of reform methods, none of which have achieved universal acceptance. Simplification schemes run into cultural opposition as well as the flexibility of the language itself. There is no theoretical limit to the number of characters. In a sense, all dictionaries are special-purpose works. See also: Chinese. Bibliography Harbaugh R (1998). Chinese characters-a genealogy and dictionary. Taipei: Han Lu Book & Publishing Co. Relevant Websites http://www.zhongwen.com/-Distributor of Chinese characters-a genealogy and dictionary.

General cognitive principles for learning structure in time and space

Trends in cognitive sciences, 2010

How are hierarchically structured sequences of objects, events or actions learned from experience... more How are hierarchically structured sequences of objects, events or actions learned from experience and represented in the brain? When several streams of regularities present themselves, which will be learned and which ignored? Can statistical regularities take effect on their own, or are additional factors such as behavioral outcomes expected to influence statistical learning? Answers to these questions are starting to emerge through a convergence of findings from naturalistic observations, behavioral experiments, neurobiological studies, and computational analyses and simulations. We propose that a small set of principles are at work in every situation that involves learning of structure from patterns of experience and outline a general framework that accounts for such learning.

The potential contribution of statistical learning to second language acquisition

Statistical Learning and Language Acquisition

Many fundamental aspects of human learning can be characterized as problems of induction–finding ... more Many fundamental aspects of human learning can be characterized as problems of induction–finding patterns and generalizations in space and time in conditions of uncertainty and from limited exposure. Some of these problems include deriving abstract categories from experience (eg, Tenenbaum &amp;amp; Griffiths, 2001); learning word meanings from their co-occurrence with perceived events in the world (eg, Frank, Goodman, &amp;amp; Tenenbaum, 2009; Yu &amp;amp; Smith, 2007), learning the similarity and difference of meanings from their co- ...

Statistical Language Learning

Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2003

What types of mechanisms underlie the acquisition of human language? Recent evidence suggests tha... more What types of mechanisms underlie the acquisition of human language? Recent evidence suggests that learners, including infants, can use statistical properties of linguistic input to discover structure, including sound patterns, words, and the beginnings of grammar. These abilities appear to be both powerful and constrained, such that some statistical patterns are more readily detected and used than others. Implications for the structure of human languages are discussed.