************* Second Call for Papers **************
Psychocomputational Models of Human Language Acquisition
PsychoCompLA-2007
August 1st at CogSci 2007 - Nashville, Tennessee
Submission Deadline: May 22, 2007
http://www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/psychocomp/
Workshop Topic:
The workshop is devoted to psychologically-motivated computational models of
language acquisition. That is, models that are compatible with research in
psycholinguistics, developmental psychology and linguistics.
Invited Speakers:
* Elissa Newport, University of Rochester
* Shimon Edelman, Cornell University
* Damir Cavar, University of Zadar, University of Indiana
* Robert Frank, Johns Hopkins University
* Terry Regier, University of Chicago
* Alex Clark, Royal Holloway University of London
* Charles Yang, University of Pennsylvania
Workshop Description:
This workshop will present research and foster discussion
centered around psychologically-motivated computational models of language
acquisition, with an emphasis on the acquisition of syntax. In recent decades
there has been a thriving research agenda that applies computational learning
techniques to emerging natural language technologies and many meetings,
conferences and workshops in which to present such research. However, there
have been only a few (but growing number of) venues in which
psychocomputational models of how humans acquire their native language(s) are
the primary focus. By psychocomputational models we mean models that are
compatible with, or might inform research in psycholinguistics, developmental
psychology or linguistics.
Psychocomputational models of language acquisition are of particular interest
in light of recent results in developmental psychology that suggest that very
young infants are adept at detecting statistical patterns in an audible input
stream. Though, how children might plausibly apply statistical 'machinery' to
the task of grammar acquisition, with or without an innate language component,
remains an open and important question. One effective line of investigation is
to computationally model the acquisition process and determine
interrelationships between a model and linguistic or psycholinguistic theory,
and/or correlations between a model's performance and data from linguistic
environments that children are exposed to.
Although there has been a significant amount of presented research targeted at
modeling the acquisition of word categories, morphology and phonology, research
aimed at modeling syntax acquisition has just begun to emerge.
Workshop History:
This is the third meeting of the Psychocomputational Models of Human Language
Acquisition workshop following PsychoCompLA-2004, held in Geneva, Switzerland
as part of the 20th International Conference on Computational Linguistics
(COLING 2004) and PsychoCompLA-2005 as part of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the
Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL-2005) held in Ann Arbor,
Michigan where the workshop shared a joint session with the Ninth Conference on
Computational Natural Language Learning (CoNLL-2005).
Workshop Organizer:
William Gregory Sakas, City University of New York
(sakas at hunter.cuny.edu)
Workshop Co-organizer:
David Guy Brizan, City University of New York
(dbrizan at gc.cuny.edu)
Submission details:
Authors are invited to submit abstracts of 1 page plus 1 page for data and
other supplementary materials. Abstracts should be anonymous, clearly titled
and no more than 500 words in length. Text of the abstract should fit on one
page, with a second page for examples, table, figures, references, etc. The
following formats are accepted: PDF, PS, and MS Word. Please include a cover
sheet (as a separate attachment) containing the title of your submission, your
name, contact details and affiliation. Please send your submission
electronically to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The accepted abstracts will appear in the
online workshop proceedings. Full papers will be considered for a submission
for a special issue of a Cognitive Science Society Journal in the fall.
Submission deadline: May 22, 2007
Topics and Goals:
Abstracts that present research on (but not necessarily limited to) the
following topics are welcome:
* Models that address the acquisition of word-order;
* Models that combine parsing and learning;
* Formal learning-theoretic and grammar induction models that incorporate
psychologically plausible constraints;
* Comparative surveys that critique previously reported studies;
* Models that have a cross-linguistic or bilingual perspective;
* Models that address learning bias in terms of innate linguistic knowledge
versus statistical regularity in the input;
* Models that employ language modeling techniques from corpus linguistics;
* Models that employ techniques from machine learning;
* Models of language change and its effect on language acquisition or vice
versa;
* Models that employ statistical/probabilistic grammars;
* Computational models that can be used to evaluate existing linguistic or
developmental theories (e.g., principles & parameters, optimality theory,
construction grammar, etc.)
* Empirical models that make use of child-directed corpora such as CHILDES.
This workshop intends to bring together researchers from
cognitive psychology, computational linguistics, other computer/mathematical
sciences, linguistics and psycholinguistics working on all areas of language
acquisition. Diversity and cross-fertilization of ideas is the central goal.
Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FYI, Related 2007 Meetings
Machine Learning and Cognitive Science of Language Acquisition
21-22 June, 2007
Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition
29 June, 2007
Exemplar-Based Models of Language Acquisition and Use
6-17 August, 2007
