Hermann Ackermann, Wolfram Ziegler
Audra Ames, Sara Wielandt, Dianne Cameron, Stan Kuczaj
David Ardell, Noelle Anderson, Bodo Winter
Rie Asano, Edward Ruoyang Shi
Mark Atkinson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Andreas Baumann, Christina Prömer, Kamil Kazmierski, Nikolaus Ritt
Christian Bentz
Aleksandrs Berdicevskis, Hanne Eckhoff
Richard A. Blythe, Alistair H. Jones, Jessica Renton
Cedric Boeckx, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Antonio Benítez-Burraco
Megan Broadway, Jamie Klaus, Billie Serafin, Heidi Lyn
Jon W. Carr, Kenny Smith, Hannah Cornish, Simon Kirby
Federica Cavicchio, Livnat Leemor, Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Wendy Sandler
Zanna Clay, Jahmaira Archbold, Klaus Zuberbuhler
Katie Collier, Andrew N. Radford, Balthasar Bickel, Marta B. Manser, Simon W. Townsend
Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby, Marieke Schouwstra
Christine Cuskley, Vittorio Loreto
Christine Cuskley, Bernardo Monechi, Pietro Gravino, Vittorio Loreto
Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Sabrina Engesser, Amanda R. Ridley, Simon W. Townsend
Dankmar Enke, Roland Mühlenbernd, Igor Yanovich
Kerem Eryilmaz, Hannah Little, Bart de Boer
Nicolas Fay, Shane Rogers
Maryia Fedzechkina, Becky Chu, T. Florian Jaeger, John Trueswell
Olga Feher, Kenny Smith, Elizabeth Wonnacott, Nikolaus Ritt
Piera Filippi, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Daniel Liu Bowling, Larissa Heege, Albert Newen, Onur Güntürkün, Bart de Boer
Piera Filippi, Jenna V. Congdon, John Hoang, Daniel Liu Bowling, Stephan Reber, Andrius Pašukonis, Marisa Hoeschele, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Bart de Boer, Christopher B. Sturdy, Albert Newen, Onur GÜntÜrkÜn
Molly Flaherty, Katelyn Stangl, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Marlen Fröhlich, Paul H Kuchenbuch, Gudrun Müller, Barbara Fruth, Takeshi Furuichi, Roman M Wittig, Simone Pika
Victor Gay, Daniel Hicks, Estefania Santacreu-Vasut
Andreea Geambasu, Michelle J. Spierings, Carel ten Cate, Clara C. Levelt
Matt Hall, Russell Richie, Marie Coppola
Stefan Hartmann, Peeter Tinits, Jonas Nölle, Thomas Hartmann, Michael Pleyer
Wolfram Hinzen, Joana Rosselló
Rick Janssen, Bodo Winter, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik, Sean Roberts
Rick Janssen, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Jasmeen Kanwal, Kenny Smith, Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby
Deborah Kerr, Kenny Smith
Buddhamas Kriengwatana, Paola Escudero, Anne Kerkhoven, Carel ten Cate
Adriano Lameira, Jeremy Kendal, Marco Gamba
Molly Lewis, Michael C. Frank
Casey Lister, Tiarn Burtenshaw, Nicolas Fay, Bradley Walker, Jeneva Ohan
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Giuseppe Longobardi, Armin Buch, Andrea Ceolin, Aaron Ecay, Cristina Guardiano, Monica Irimia, Dimitris Michelioudakis, Nina Radkevich, Gerhard Jaeger
Heidi Lyn, Stephanie Jett, Megan Broadway, Mystera Samuelson
Michael Mcloughlin, Luca Lamoni, Ellen Garland, Simon Ingram, Alexis Kirke, Michael Noad, Luke Rendell, Eduardo Miranda
Adrien Meguerditchian, Damien Marie, Konstantina Margiotoudi, Scott A. Love, Alice Bertello, Romain Lacoste, Muriel Roth, Bruno Nazarian, Jean-Luc Anton, Olivier Coulon
Jérôme Michaud
Ashley Micklos
Marie Montant, Johannes Ziegler, Benny Briesemeister, Tila Brink, Bruno Wicker, Aurélie Ponz, Mireille Bonnard, Arthur Jacobs, Mario Braun
Yasamin Motamedi, Marieke Schouwstra, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Roland Mühlenbernd, Johannes Wahle
Tomoya Nakai, Kazuo Okanoya
Savithry Namboodiripad, Daniel Lenzen, Ryan Lepic, Tessa Verhoef
Alan Nielsen, Dieuwke Hupkes, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Bill Noble, Raquel Fernández
Irene M. Pepperberg, Katia Zilber-Izhar, Scott Smith
Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan, Bodo Winter, Dominic Massaro
Ljiljana Progovac
Andrea Ravignani, Tania Delgado, Simon Kirby
Terry Regier, Alexandra Carstensen, Charles Kemp
Lilia Rissman, Laura Horton, Molly Flaherty, Marie Coppola, Annie Senghas, Diane Brentari, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Gareth Roberts, Mariya Fedzechkina
Carmen Saldana, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Carlos Santana
William Schueller, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Catriona Silvey, Christos Christodoulopoulos
Katie Slocombe, Stuart Watson, Anne Schel, Claudia Wilke, Emma Wallace, Leveda Cheng, Victoria West, Simon Townsend
Ruth Sonnweber, Andrea Ravignani
Michelle Spierings, Carel ten Cate
Kevin Stadler, Elyse Jamieson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Monica Tamariz, Joleana Shurley
Monica Tamariz, Jon W. Carr
Bill Thompson, Heikki Rasilo
Oksana Tkachman, Carla L. Hudson Kam
Simon Townsend, Andrew Russell, Sabrina Engesser
Francesca Tria, Vittorio Loreto, Vito Servedio, S. Mufwene Salikoko
Anu Vastenius, Jordan Zlatev, Joost Van de Weijer
Tessa Verhoef, Carol Padden, Simon Kirby
Slawomir Wacewicz, Przemyslaw Zywiczynski, Arkadiusz Jasinski
Bodo Winter, David Ardell
Bodo Winter, Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan
Marieke Woensdregt, Kenny Smith, Chris Cummins, Simon Kirby
Eva Zehentner, Andreas Baumann, Nikolaus Ritt, Christina Prömer
Keywords: Agent-Based Modelling, Cultural Evolution, Co-Evolution, Mindreading, Bayesian Inference
Short description: Have language and mindreading co-evolved (through culture)? This agent-based model explores their interaction in development and evolution.
Abstract:
One defining feature of human language is its heavy reliance on entertaining (meta-)representations of each others’ mental states (e.g. Scott-Phillips, 2014). The development of such mindreading skills was a crucial step in hominin evolution because it allowed for the expression and recognition of communicative intentions, thereby paving the way for the cooperative information sharing that we find in humans today. The ability to recognize and infer communicative intentions also plays an important role in language development on an ontogenetic timescale, as evidenced by studies correlating mindreading skills and word learning (e.g. Parish-Morris, Hennon, Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, & Tager-Flusberg, 2007).
This relationship between language and mindreading may be reciprocal; the acquisition of language has been shown to unlock further levels of mindreading development in the individual (e.g. Lohmann & Tomasello, 2003; Pyers & Senghas, 2009). Furthermore, Heyes and Frith (2014) have argued that mindreading is a skill that has developed (partly) through cumulative cultural evolution - just like language (Kirby, Tamariz, Cornish, & Smith, 2015).
In this paper we present a computational model that investigates the implications of such a bidirectional interaction between the capacities of language and mindreading. This new agent-based model builds on previous models of crosssituational word learning (Siskind, 1996), but extends this framework by allowing agents to learn a way of inferring an interlocutor’s communicative intentions, simultaneously with learning the lexicon.
In the model, agents communicate (probabilistically) about objects that are proximate to them. The learner’s task is to establish the relations between the words and the objects (i.e. the lexicon), and the perspective of the speaker, which may be the same as the learner’s own or may differ. The communicative intentions of the speaker are a product of the context that the agents find themselves in and the speaker’s perspective (which renders some objects more salient than others). Utterances in turn are a product of a speaker’s communicative intention and lexicon.
The data that a learner has access to in order to learn a speaker’s lexicon and perspective consists of the speaker’s word use in context. From these two observable variables the learner has to infer two unobservable variables simultaneously: the speaker’s lexicon and their perspective. This learning happens through Bayesian inference, where accumulating evidence allows the learner to weigh different combinations of lexicon and perspective hypotheses against each other - based on the likelihood of the incoming data given a specific hypothesis.
Although a speaker’s utterances are as much a product of their perspective as they are of their lexicon, simulations with this model show that given consistent input, a learner is able to infer both the correct lexicon and the correct perspective from scratch, by reciprocally bootstrapping the learning of the one variable with partial knowledge of the other. The learning trajectory that is revealed in these simulations is one where acquiring a bit of the lexicon helps the learner infer the speaker’s perspective, which in turn allows the learner to acquire the rest of the lexicon.
We will discuss the dynamics of this model on two different levels: exploring the emergence of language and mindreading capacities both within individual agents and across generations of a population. This model thus gives insight into the effects of an individual-level interaction of cognitive capacities on populationwide dynamics such as establishing and maintaining a stable signalling system; thereby connecting proximate and ultimate causes of language evolution.
Citation:
Woensdregt M., Smith K., Cummins C. and Kirby S. (2016). The Cultural Co-evolution Of Language And Mindreading. In S.G. Roberts, C. Cuskley, L. McCrohon, L. Barceló-Coblijn, O. Fehér & T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (EVOLANG11). Available online: http://evolang.org/neworleans/papers/84.html