Birdsong and speech development: could there be parallels?

Journal Article•

Birdsong and speech development: could there be parallels?

01 Nov 1970-American Scientist (Am Sci)-Vol. 58, Iss: 6, pp 669-673

About: This article is published in American Scientist.The article was published on 1970-11-01 and is currently open access. It has received 368 citations till now.

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Journal Article•DOI•

The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?

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Marc D. Hauser¹, Noam Chomsky², W. Tecumseh Fitch¹•Institutions (2)

Harvard University¹, Massachusetts Institute of Technology²

22 Nov 2002-Science

TL;DR: It is argued that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation and how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience is suggested.

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Abstract: We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB)and in the narrow sense (FLN) . FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).

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3,293 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The motor theory of speech perception revised

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Alvin M. Liberman¹, Ignatius G. Mattingly¹•Institutions (1)

University of Connecticut¹

01 Oct 1985-Cognition

TL;DR: A motor theory of speech perception, initially proposed to account for results of early experiments with synthetic speech, is now extensively revised to accommodate recent findings, and to relate the assumptions of the theory to those that might be made about other perceptual modes.

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2,523 citations

Cites background from "Birdsong and speech development: co..."

...And there is presumably much to be learned by comparison with such biologically coherent systems as those that underlie echolocation in bats (Suga, 1984) or song in birds (Marler, 1970; Thorpe, 1958)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

BIRDSONG AND HUMAN SPEECH: Common Themes and Mechanisms

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Allison J. Doupe¹, Patricia K. Kuhl²•Institutions (2)

University of Southern California¹, University of Washington²

01 Jan 1999-Annual Review of Neuroscience

TL;DR: Human speech and birdsong have numerous parallels, with striking similarities in how sensory experience is internalized and used to shape vocal outputs, and how learning is enhanced during a critical period of development.

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Abstract: Human speech and birdsong have numerous parallels. Both humans and songbirds learn their complex vocalizations early in life, exhibiting a strong dependence on hearing the adults they will imitate, as well as themselves as they practice, and a waning of this dependence as they mature. Innate predispositions for perceiving and learning the correct sounds exist in both groups, although more evidence of innate descriptions of species-specific signals exists in songbirds, where numerous species of vocal learners have been compared. Humans also share with songbirds an early phase of learning that is primarily perceptual, which then serves to guide later vocal production. Both humans and songbirds have evolved a complex hierarchy of specialized forebrain areas in which motor and auditory centers interact closely, and which control the lower vocal motor areas also found in nonlearners. In both these vocal learners, however, how auditory feedback of self is processed in these brain areas is surprisingly unclear. Finally, humans and songbirds have similar critical periods for vocal learning, with a much greater ability to learn early in life. In both groups, the capacity for late vocal learning may be decreased by the act of learning itself, as well as by biological factors such as the hormones of puberty. Although some features of birdsong and speech are clearly not analogous, such as the capacity of language for meaning, abstraction, and flexible associations, there are striking similarities in how sensory experience is internalized and used to shape vocal outputs, and how learning is enhanced during a critical period of development. Similar neural mechanisms may therefore be involved.

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1,519 citations

Cites background from "Birdsong and speech development: co..."

...Experts in the fields of human speech and birdsong have often commented on the parallels between the two in terms of communication and its development (Marler 1970a, Kuhl 1989)....
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...…of the sensory learning period in songbirds, however, have assessed what is learned by using adult song production as an assay, after tutoring birds either for short blocks of time beginning at different ages or with changing sets of songs for a long period of time (Marler 1970b, Nelson 1997)....
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...Rather, in the well-studied white-crowned sparrows, the sensory period begins around day 20 and peaks in the next 30 days, with some acquisition possible up to 100 or 150 days (Baptista & Petrinovich 1986, Marler 1970b) (Figure 3)....
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...memorization of the sensory template, which is a subset of all possible vocalizations of the species (Marler 1970b)....
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...…can be clearly demonstrated by showing that birds taken from the wild as eggs or nestlings and exposed to unrelated conspecific adults, or even simply to tape recordings of the song of these adults, ultimately produce normal songs that match those that were heard (Marler 1970b; Thorpe 1958, 1961)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science

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Nicholas Evans¹, Stephen C. Levinson²•Institutions (2)

Australian National University¹, Max Planck Society²

01 Oct 2009-Behavioral and Brain Sciences

TL;DR: This target article summarizes decades of cross-linguistic work by typologists and descriptive linguists, showing just how few and unprofound the universal characteristics of language are, once the authors honestly confront the diversity offered to us by the world's 6,000 to 8,000 languages.

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Abstract: Talk of linguistic universals has given cognitive scientists the impression that languages are all built to a common pattern. In fact, there are vanishingly few universals of language in the direct sense that all languages exhibit them. Instead, diversity can be found at almost every level of linguistic organization. This fundamentally changes the object of enquiry from a cognitive science perspective. This target article summarizes decades of cross-linguistic work by typologists and descriptive linguists, showing just how few and unprofound the universal characteristics of language are, once we honestly confront the diversity offered to us by the world's 6,000 to 8,000 languages. After surveying the various uses of "universal," we illustrate the ways languages vary radically in sound, meaning, and syntactic organization, and then we examine in more detail the core grammatical machinery of recursion, constituency, and grammatical relations. Although there are significant recurrent patterns in organization, these are better explained as stable engineering solutions satisfying multiple design constraints, reflecting both cultural-historical factors and the constraints of human cognition. Linguistic diversity then becomes the crucial datum for cognitive science: we are the only species with a communication system that is fundamentally variable at all levels. Recognizing the true extent of structural diversity in human language opens up exciting new research directions for cognitive scientists, offering thousands of different natural experiments given by different languages, with new opportunities for dialogue with biological paradigms concerned with change and diversity, and confronting us with the extraordinary plasticity of the highest human skills.

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1,385 citations

Cites background from "Birdsong and speech development: co..."

...As repeatedly urged by students of birdsong (Doupé & Kuhl 1999; Marler 1970; Nottebohm 1975), this distinctive capacity of ours for vocal learning holds the biological key to the singularity of human language....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Sensitive Periods in the Development of the Brain and Behavior

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Eric I. Knudsen¹•Institutions (1)

Stanford University¹

01 Oct 2004-Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

TL;DR: A hypothesis is proposed that experience during a sensitive period modifies the architecture of a circuit in fundamental ways, causing certain patterns of connectivity to become highly stable and, therefore, energetically preferred.

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Abstract: Experience exerts a profound influence on the brain and, therefore, on behavior. When the effect of experience on the brain is particularly strong during a limited period in development, this period is referred to as a sensitive period. Such periods allow experience to instruct neural circuits to process or represent information in a way that is adaptive for the individual. When experience provides information that is essential for normal development and alters performance permanently, such sensitive periods are referred to as critical periods. Although sensitive periods are reflected in behavior, they are actually a property of neural circuits. Mechanisms of plasticity at the circuit level are discussed that have been shown to operate during sensitive periods. A hypothesis is proposed that experience during a sensitive period modifies the architecture of a circuit in fundamental ways, causing certain patterns of connectivity to become highly stable and, therefore, energetically preferred. Plasticity that occurs beyond the end of a sensitive period, which is substantial in many circuits, alters connectivity patterns within the architectural constraints established during the sensitive period. Preferences in a circuit that result from experience during sensitive periods are illustrated graphically as changes in a ''stability landscape,'' a metaphor that represents the relative contributions of genetic and experiential influences in shaping the information processing capabilities of a neural circuit. By understanding sensitive periods at the circuit level, as well as understanding the relationship between circuit properties and behavior, we gain a deeper insight into the critical role that experience plays in shaping the development of the brain and behavior.

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1,355 citations

Cites background from "Birdsong and speech development: co..."

...Songbirds memorize the song that they will sing (Konishi, 1985; Marler, 1970a)....
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...In the case of songbirds that have never heard song throughout a critical period, adults sing highly abnormal (‘‘isolate’’) songs (Konishi, 1985; Marler, 1970b); in the case of primates or birds that have been deprived of interactions with an attentive primary car giver, they never respond…...
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...For example, the circuits involved in imprinting acquire a strong preference for a particular stimulus, and the circuits involved in song memorization establish a template for just a single song, in some species of songbirds (Hess, 1973; Marler, 1970b)....
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...In each case, the experience must be of a particular kind and it must occur within a certain period if the behavior is to develop normally....
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...Both of these behaviors, song memorization and filial imprinting in birds, are subject to critical periods that can end rapidly with appropriate experience (Hess, 1973; Marler, 1970b)....
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Birdsong and speech development: could there be parallels?

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