Publications

@article{culbertson2020harmony,

title = {A learning bias for word order harmony: evidence from speakers of non-harmonic languages},

author = {Jennifer Culbertson and Julie Franck and Guillaume Braquet and Magda Barrera Navarro and Inbal Arnon},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Cognition},

volume = {204},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{culbertson2020world,

title = {From the world to word order: deriving biases in noun phrase order from statistical properties of the world},

author = {Jennifer Culbertson and Marieke Schouwstra and Simon Kirby},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Language},

volume = {96},

number = {3},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{kenanidis2020cue,

title = {Cue reliability, salience and early comprehension of agreement: Evidence from Greek},

author = {Panagiotis Kenanidis and Vicky Chondrogianni and Jennifer Culbertson},

doi = {doi:10.1017/S0305000920000628},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Child Language},

pages = {1--19},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{maldonado2020person,

title = {Person of interest: Experimental investigations into the learnability of person systems},

author = {Mora Maldonado and Jennifer Culbertson},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1162 / ling_a_00406},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Linguistic Inquiry},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{martin2020experimental,

title = {Experiment evidence for the influence of structure and meaning on linear order in the noun phrase},

author = {Alexander Martin and Annie Holtz and Klaus Abels and David Adger and Jennifer Culbertson},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1085},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Glossa},

volume = {5},

number = {1},

pages = {1-21},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{martin2020revisiting,

title = {Revisiting the suffixing preference: Native language affixation patterns influence perception of sequences},

author = {Alexander Martin and Jennifer Culbertson},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Psychological Science},

volume = {31},

number = {9},

pages = {1107--1116},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{silvey_19_Communication,

title = {Communication Increases Category Structure and Alignment Only When Combined with Cultural Transmission},

author = {Catriona Silvey and Simon Kirby and Kenny Smith},

doi = {10.1016/j.jml.2019.104051},

issn = {0749596X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-12-01},

journal = {Journal of Memory and Language},

volume = {109},

pages = {104051},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{motamedi_19_Evolving,

title = {Evolving Artificial Sign Languages in the Lab: From Improvised Gesture to Systematic Sign},

author = {Yasamin Motamedi and Marieke Schouwstra and Kenny Smith and Jennifer Culbertson and Simon Kirby},

doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.001},

issn = {00100277},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-11-01},

journal = {Cognition},

volume = {192},

pages = {103964},

abstract = {Recent work on emerging sign languages provides evidence for how key properties of linguistic systems are created. Here we use laboratory experiments to investigate the contribution of two specific mechanisms interaction and transmission to the emergence of a manual communication system in silent gesturers. We show that the combined effects of these mechanisms, rather than either alone, maintain communicative efficiency, and lead to a gradual increase of regularity and systematic structure. The gestures initially produced by participants are unsystematic and resemble pantomime, but come to develop key language-like properties similar to those documented in newly emerging sign systems.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12780,

title = {Interaction Promotes the Adaptation of Referential Conventions to the Communicative Context},

author = {Lucía Castillo and Kenny Smith and Holly P. Branigan},

url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cogs.12780},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12780},

issn = {0364-0213, 1551-6709},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-08-01},

urldate = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Cognitive Science},

volume = {43},

number = {8},

abstract = {Abstract Coordination between speakers in dialogue requires balancing repetition and change, the old and the new. Interlocutors tend to reuse established forms, relying on communicative precedents. Yet linguistic interaction also necessitates adaptation to changing contexts or dynamic tasks, which might favor abandoning existing precedents in favor of better communicative alternatives. We explored this tension using a maze game task in which individual participants and interacting pairs had to describe figures and their positions in one of two possible maze types: a regular maze, in which the grid-like structure of the maze is highlighted, and an irregular maze, in which specific parts of the maze are salient. Participants repeated this task several times. Both individuals and interacting pairs were affected by the different maze layouts, initially using more idiosyncratic description schemes for irregular mazes and more systematic schemes for regular mazes. Interacting pairs, but not individuals, abandoned their unsystematic initial descriptions in favor of a more systematic approach, which was better adapted for repeated interaction. Our results show communicative conventions are initially shaped by context, but interaction opens up the possibility for change if better alternatives are available.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{saldana_19_Compositional,

title = {Compositional Hierarchical Structure Evolves through Cultural Transmission: An Experimental Study},

author = {Carmen Saldana and Simon Kirby and Robert Truswell and Kenny Smith},

doi = {10.1093/jole/lzz002},

issn = {2058-458X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-01},

journal = {Journal of Language Evolution},

volume = {4},

number = {2},

pages = {83--107},

abstract = {Abstract Compositional hierarchical structure is a prerequisite for productive languages; it allows language learners to express and understand an infinity of meanings from finite sources (i.e., a lexicon and a grammar). Understanding how such structure evolved is central to evolutionary linguistics. Previous work combining artificial language learning and iterated learning techniques has shown how basic compositional structure can evolve from the trade-off between learnability and expressivity pressures at play in language transmission. In the present study we show, across two experiments, how the same mechanisms involved in the evolution of basic compositionality can also lead to the evolution of compositional hierarchical structure. We thus provide experimental evidence showing that cultural transmission allows advantages of compositional hierarchical structure in language learning and use to permeate language as a system of behaviour.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{saldana_19_Highfidelity,

title = {High-Fidelity Copying Is Not Necessarily the Key to Cumulative Cultural Evolution: A Study in Monkeys and Children},

author = {Carmen Saldana and Jo"el Fagot and Simon Kirby and Kenny Smith and Nicolas Claidi`ere},

doi = {10.1098/rspb.2019.0729},

issn = {0962-8452, 1471-2954},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-06-01},

journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences},

volume = {286},

number = {1904},

pages = {20190729},

abstract = {The unique cumulative nature of human culture has often been explained by high-fidelity copying mechanisms found only in human social learning. However, transmission chain experiments in human and non-human primates suggest that cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) might not necessarily depend on high-fidelity copying after all. In this study, we test whether defining properties of CCE can emerge in a non-copying task. We performed transmission chain experiments in Guinea baboons and human children where individuals observed and produced visual patterns composed of four squares on touchscreen devices. In order to be rewarded, participants had to avoid touching squares that were touched by a previous participant. In other words, they were rewarded for innovation rather than copying. Results nevertheless exhibited fundamental properties of CCE: an increase over generations in task performance and the emergence of systematic structure. However, these properties arose from different mechanisms across species: children, unlike baboons, converged in behaviour over generations by copying specific patterns in a different location, thus introducing alternative copying mechanisms into the non-copying task. In children, prior biases towards specific shapes led to convergence in behaviour across chains, while baboon chains showed signs of lineage specificity. We conclude that CCE can result from mechanisms with varying degrees of fidelity in transmission and thus that high-fidelity copying is not necessarily the key to CCE.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{ferdinand_19_cognitive,

title = {The Cognitive Roots of Regularization in Language},

author = {Vanessa Ferdinand and Simon Kirby and Kenny Smith},

doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2018.12.002},

issn = {00100277},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-03-01},

journal = {Cognition},

volume = {184},

pages = {53--68},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{culbertson2018artificial,

title = {Artificial language learning in children},

author = {Jennifer Culbertson and Kathryn Schuler},

doi = {10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011718-012329},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Annual Review of Linguistics},

volume = {5},

pages = {353-373},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{martin2019crosslinguistic,

title = {Cross-linguistic evidence for cognitive universals in the noun phrase},

author = {Alexander Martin and Klaus Abels and Theeraporn Ratitamkul and Jennifer Culbertson},

doi = {doi:10.1515/lingvan-2018-0072},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Linguistics Vanguard},

volume = {5},

number = {1},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{motamedi2019evolving,

title = {Evolving artificial sign languages in the lab: from improvised gesture to systematic sign},

author = {Yasamin Motamedi and Marieke Schouwstra and Kenny Smith and Jennifer Culbertson and Simon Kirby},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Cognition},

volume = {192},

pages = {1039642},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{culbertson_19_Children,

title = {Children's Sensitivity to Phonological and Semantic Cues during Noun Class Learning: Evidence for a Phonological Bias},

author = {Jennifer Culbertson and Hanna Jarvinen and Frances Haggarty and Kenny Smith},

doi = {10.1353/lan.2019.0031},

issn = {1535-0665},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Language},

volume = {95},

number = {2},

pages = {268--293},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{feher_19_Asymmetric,

title = {Asymmetric Accommodation during Interaction Leads to the Regularisation of Linguistic Variants},

author = {Olga Fehér and Nikolaus Ritt and Kenny Smith},

issn = {0749596X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Memory and Language},

volume = {109},

pages = {104036},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{winters_18_Contextual,

title = {Contextual Predictability Shapes Signal Autonomy},

author = {James Winters and Simon Kirby and Kenny Smith},

doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2018.03.002},

issn = {00100277},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-07-01},

journal = {Cognition},

volume = {176},

pages = {15--30},

abstract = {Aligning on a shared system of communication requires senders and receivers reach a balance between simplicity, where there is a pressure for compressed representations, and informativeness, where there is a pressure to be communicatively functional. We investigate the extent to which these two pressures are governed by contextual predictability: the amount of contextual information that a sender can estimate, and therefore exploit, in conveying their intended meaning. In particular, we test the claim that contextual predictability is causally related to signal autonomy: the degree to which a signal can be interpreted in isolation, without recourse to contextual information. Using an asymmetric communication game, where senders and receivers are assigned fixed roles, we manipulate two aspects of the referential context: (i) whether or not a sender shares access to the immediate contextual information used by the receiver in interpreting their utterance; (ii) the extent to which the relevant solution in the immediate referential context is generalisable to the aggregate set of contexts. Our results demonstrate that contextual predictability shapes the degree of signal autonomy: when the context is highly predictable (i.e., the sender has access to the context in which their utterances will be interpreted, and the semantic dimension which discriminates between meanings in context is consistent across communicative episodes), languages develop which rely heavily on the context to reduce uncertainty about the intended meaning. When the context is less predictable, senders favour systems composed of autonomous signals, where all potentially relevant semantic dimensions are explicitly encoded. Taken together, these results suggest that our pragmatic faculty, and how it integrates information from the context in reducing uncertainty, plays a central role in shaping language structure.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{smith_18_cognitive,

title = {The Cognitive Prerequisites for Language: Insights from Iterated Learning},

author = {Kenny Smith},

doi = {10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.05.003},

issn = {23521546},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-06-01},

journal = {Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences},

volume = {21},

pages = {154--160},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{hutchison_18_Context,

title = {Context and Perceptual Salience Influence the Formation of Novel Stereotypes via Cumulative Cultural Evolution},

author = {Jacqui Hutchison and Sheila J. Cunningham and Gillian Slessor and James Urquhart and Kenny Smith and Douglas Martin},

doi = {10.1111/cogs.12560},

issn = {03640213},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-05-01},

journal = {Cognitive Science},

volume = {42},

pages = {186--212},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{claidiere_18_Convergent,

title = {Convergent Transformation and Selection in Cultural Evolution},

author = {Nicolas Claidi`ere and Gameli Kodjo-kuma Amedon and Jean-Baptiste André and Simon Kirby and Kenny Smith and Dan Sperber and Jo"el Fagot},

doi = {10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.12.007},

issn = {10905138},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-03-01},

journal = {Evolution and Human Behavior},

volume = {39},

number = {2},

pages = {191--202},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{10.1093/jole/lzy010,

title = {Social Group Effects on the Emergence of Communicative Conventions and Language Complexity},

author = {Mark Atkinson and Gregory J Mills and Kenny Smith},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzy010},

doi = {10.1093/jole/lzy010},

issn = {2058-458X},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Language Evolution},

volume = {4},

number = {1},

pages = {1-18},

abstract = {Languages differ in their complexity. One possible explanation for this observation is that differences in social factors influence linguistic complexity: languages that are used for communication in small-scale ‘societies of intimates’ exhibit greater complexity as a result of the communicative contexts in which they are typically employed. We used the techniques from referential communication studies across three experiments to assess the effects of two social group factors—group size and amount of communally shared knowledge—on the brevity and transparency of linguistic conventions. In Experiment 1, we explored the effects of a manipulation of group size, comparing the conventions which develop from the interaction of two speakers, with those which develop between three speakers. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the extent to which groups of three speakers share talk-relevant contextual information. While we found the conditions that involve larger groups and less shared background information initially resulted in longer labels and a greater reliance on more literal descriptive terms, there was no effect of either factor in the longer term. In Experiment 3, we investigated the transparency of the conventions of Experiments 1 and 2 by assessing how well they could be matched to their intended referents by naive individuals. We found no evidence to support the claims that communicative contexts involving communicating with more individuals, or individuals with whom less relevant information is shared, produce more transparent conventions. Our experiments ultimately provide no support for the idea that the structure of linguistic conventions is shaped by the groups in which they develop.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{wetherell_17_Psychobiological,

title = {Psychobiological Responses to Critically Evaluated Multitasking},

author = {Mark A. Wetherell and Olivia Craw and Kenny Smith and Michael A. Smith},

doi = {10.1016/j.ynstr.2017.05.002},

issn = {23522895},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-12-01},

journal = {Neurobiology of Stress},

volume = {7},

pages = {68--73},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{martin_17_How,

title = {How Societal Stereotypes Might Form and Evolve via Cumulative Cultural Evolution},

author = {Douglas Martin and Sheila J. Cunningham and Jacqui Hutchison and Gillian Slessor and Kenny Smith},

doi = {10.1111/spc3.12338},

issn = {17519004},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-09-01},

journal = {Social and Personality Psychology Compass},

volume = {11},

number = {9},

pages = {e12338},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{kanwal_17_Zipf,

title = {Zipf's Law of Abbreviation and the Principle of Least Effort: Language Users Optimise a Miniature Lexicon for Efficient Communication},

author = {Jasmeen Kanwal and Kenny Smith and Jennifer Culbertson and Simon Kirby},

doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.001},

issn = {00100277},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-08-01},

journal = {Cognition},

volume = {165},

pages = {45--52},

abstract = {The linguist George Kingsley Zipf made a now classic observation about the relationship between a word's length and its frequency; the more frequent a word is, the shorter it tends to be. He claimed that this ``Law of Abbreviation'' is a universal structural property of language. The Law of Abbreviation has since been documented in a wide range of human languages, and extended to animal communication systems and even computer programming languages. Zipf hypothesised that this universal design feature arises as a result of individuals optimising form-meaning mappings under competing pressures to communicate accurately but also efficiently his famous Principle of Least Effort. In this study, we use a miniature artificial language learning paradigm to provide direct experimental evidence for this explanatory hypothesis. We show that language users optimise form-meaning mappings only when pressures for accuracy and efficiency both operate during a communicative task, supporting Zipf's conjecture that the Principle of Least Effort can explain this universal feature of word length distributions.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}