Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Computer Program Learns Baby Talk in Any Language

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-was-your-machines-first-word dept.

athloi writes "Researchers have made a computer program that learns to decode sounds from different languages in the same way that a baby does. The program will help to shed new light on how people learn to talk. It has already raised questions as to how much specific information about language is hard-wired into the brain."

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Baby talk? I swear at my computer! by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A computer learns something that a baby can learn, and this supports the extension that it is "Learning like a baby does"?!? What a load of crap.

    And what about this "hard wired vs soft wired" stuff? What is this supposed to prove? If I build a virtual machine, does this "prove" that the machine was made of software?

    Researchers examined the hardware of a babys brain, mimic it, and argue that it proves the baby learning language is in software.

    None of which is to say that I think language is hardwired, but this is such ridiculous logic it makes me feel stupider for having read it.

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  2. Genetics IS a form of memory. by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "I get so annoyed when people talk about "hardwired" like we have some kind of genetic memory."

    Genetics IS "memory", your DNA "remembers" what traits your parents passed on. It's in a baby's genes to "discover" their hands and practice moving them until the hands learn how to look after themselves (eg:touch typing).

    Same with language, a baby's genes will make them pick up on the phonetic sounds made by it's parents and try to copy them. It is more difficult for an adult to learn a radically different language (eg Asian vs European) because the adult brain refuses to hear the different phonetics, the adult brain long ago rejected those sounds as irrelevant to language and no longer even hears them in speech. This is why you get almost universal mistakes such as "engrish".

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  3. Re:Baby talk? I swear at my computer! by muridae · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the other hand, my laugh sounds exactly like my dad's. Not surprising until you find that I didn't live with my dad and didn't really spend much time with him at all. Many of our mannerisms are also the same. Like the way we walk, with a one hand in my pocket. The resemblence between our personalities is uncanny considering we didn't live together. So I have to ask, how much is based on what we see, and how much is based on our genes. The old nature vs. nurture question.

    You don't say if you knew your dad at all growing up, or if you looked at him as a father figure. If either or both of those fit, then even the child behavior of mimicking the mannerisms of adults could explain a lot of those traits.

    On the nature side of the argument, how much of your gate and posture is controlled by your muscle structure? Same goes for your voice.

    My opinion, you start with the genetic and add the environment later. It is hard for the environment to over come strong traits presented by genetic predisposition, but easy for it to mold how minor traits present.

  4. I like the theory... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...that babies talk in baby talk because that's how everyone talks *too* them.