<OT> New Posting: ROA-588

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

ROA 588-0303

Combining Optimality Theory and a Cognitive Architecture

Jan M.V. Misker <J.M.V.Misker@ITS.TUDelft.nl>
John R. Anderson <ja+@psy.cmu.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=588


Abstract:
Optimality Theory (OT) has had a lot of attention from the linguistics
research community but also still largely lacks cognitive grounding. We
used the ACT-R cognitive architecture to gain greater insight into the
cognitive grounding issues that OT needs to address, most notably the GEN
process and the learning of the constraint ranking. A generic ACT-R 5.0
model was developed guided by OT principles. The generic model was
instantiated in two specific models, one for syllabification and one for
past tense formation. Realistic perception data was used to train the
models, both were successful in learning the correct constraint ranking
for their domain. This result partly bridges the gap between Optimality
Theory and ACT-R, providing OT with a better cognitive grounding and ACT-R
with better linguistic capabilities.

Keywords: Cognitive Modeling, Learning, Language Acquistion, Optimality
Theory

Areas: Learnability,Language Acquisition

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=588