Michael Frank

All Publications

• Interaction structure constrains the emergence of conventions in group communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Boyce, V., Hawkins, R. D., Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2024; 121 (28): e2403888121

  Abstract

  Real-world communication frequently requires language producers to address more than one comprehender at once, yet most psycholinguistic research focuses on one-on-one communication. As the audience size grows, interlocutors face new challenges that do not arise in dyads. They must consider multiple perspectives and weigh multiple sources of feedback to build shared understanding. Here, we ask which properties of the group's interaction structure facilitate successful communication. We used a repeated reference game paradigm in which directors instructed between one and five matchers to choose specific targets out of a set of abstract figures. Across 313 games (N = 1,319 participants), we manipulated several key constraints on the group's interaction, including the amount of feedback that matchers could give to directors and the availability of peer interaction between matchers. Across groups of different sizes and interaction constraints, describers produced increasingly efficient utterances and matchers made increasingly accurate selections. Critically, however, we found that smaller groups and groups with less-constrained interaction structures ("thick channels") showed stronger convergence to group-specific conventions than large groups with constrained interaction structures ("thin channels"), which struggled with convention formation. Overall, these results shed light on the core structural factors that enable communication to thrive in larger groups.

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2403888121

  View details for PubMedID 38968102

• Baby steps in evaluating the capacities of large language models NATURE REVIEWS PSYCHOLOGY Frank, M. C. 2023; 2 (8): 451-452

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s44159-023-00211-x

  View details for Web of Science ID 001125989800006

• Toward a "Standard Model" of Early Language Learning CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Kachergis, G., Marchman, V. A., Frank, M. C. 2021

  View details for DOI 10.1177/09637214211057836

  View details for Web of Science ID 000736384100001

• How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words. Nature human behaviour Bohn, M., Tessler, M. H., Merrick, M., Frank, M. C. 2021

  Abstract

  Before formal education begins, children typically acquire a vocabulary of thousands of words. This learning process requires the use of many different information sources in their social environment, including their current state of knowledge and the context in which they hear words used. How is this information integrated? We specify a developmental model according to which children consider information sources in an age-specific way and integrate them via Bayesian inference. This model accurately predicted 2-5-year-old children's word learning across a range of experimental conditions in which they had to integrate three information sources. Model comparison suggests that the central locus of development is an increased sensitivity to individual information sources, rather than changes in integration ability. This work presents a developmental theory of information integration during language learning and illustrates how formal models can be used to make a quantitative test of the predictive and explanatory power of competing theories.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41562-021-01145-1

  View details for PubMedID 34211148

• Polite Speech Emerges From Competing Social Goals. Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science Yoon, E. J., Tessler, M. H., Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2020; 4: 71–87

  Abstract

  Language is a remarkably efficient tool for transmitting information. Yet human speakers make statements that are inefficient, imprecise, or even contrary to their own beliefs, all in the service of being polite. What rational machinery underlies polite language use? Here, we show that polite speech emerges from the competition of three communicative goals: to convey information, to be kind, and to present oneself in a good light. We formalize this goal tradeoff using a probabilistic model of utterance production, which predicts human utterance choices in socially sensitive situations with high quantitative accuracy, and we show that our full model is superior to its variants with subsets of the three goals. This utility-theoretic approach to speech acts takes a step toward explaining the richness and subtlety of social language use.

  View details for DOI 10.1162/opmi_a_00035

  View details for PubMedID 33225196

• Consistency and Variability in Children's Word Learning Across Languages. Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science Braginsky, M., Yurovsky, D., Marchman, V. A., Frank, M. C. 2019; 3: 52–67

  Abstract

  Why do children learn some words earlier than others? The order in which words are acquired can provide clues about the mechanisms of word learning. In a large-scale corpus analysis, we use parent-report data from over 32,000 children to estimate the acquisition trajectories of around 400 words in each of 10 languages, predicting them on the basis of independently derived properties of the words' linguistic environment (from corpora) and meaning (from adult judgments). We examine the consistency and variability of these predictors across languages, by lexical category, and over development. The patterning of predictors across languages is quite similar, suggesting similar processes in operation. In contrast, the patterning of predictors across different lexical categories is distinct, in line with theories that posit different factors at play in the acquisition of content words and function words. By leveraging data at a significantly larger scale than previous work, our analyses identify candidate generalizations about the processes underlying word learning across languages.

  View details for DOI 10.1162/opmi_a_00026

  View details for PubMedID 31517175

• Data availability, reusability, and analytic reproducibility: evaluating the impact of a mandatory open data policy at the journal Cognition ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE Hardwicke, T. E., Mathur, M. B., MacDonald, K., Nilsonne, G., Banks, G. C., Kidwell, M. C., Mohr, A., Clayton, E., Yoon, E. J., Tessler, M., Lenne, R. L., Altman, S., Long, B., Frank, M. C. 2018; 5 (8)

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rsos.180448

  View details for Web of Science ID 000443443000059

• A Collaborative Approach to Infant Research: Promoting Reproducibility, Best Practices, and Theory-Building Frank, M. C., Bergelson, E., Bergmann, C., Cristia, A., Floccia, C., Gervain, J., Hamlin, J., Hannon, E. E., Kline, M., Levelt, C., Lew-Williams, C., Nazzi, T., Panneton, R., Rabagliati, H., Soderstrom, M., Sullivan, J., Waxman, S., Yurovsky, D. WILEY. 2017: 421–35

  View details for DOI 10.1111/infa.12182

  View details for Web of Science ID 000403931500002

• Wordbank: an open repository for developmental vocabulary data JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE Frank, M. C., Braginsky, M., Yurovsky, D., Marchman, V. A. 2017; 44 (3): 677-694

  Abstract

  The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are a widely used family of parent-report instruments for easy and inexpensive data-gathering about early language acquisition. CDI data have been used to explore a variety of theoretically important topics, but, with few exceptions, researchers have had to rely on data collected in their own lab. In this paper, we remedy this issue by presenting Wordbank, a structured database of CDI data combined with a browsable web interface. Wordbank archives CDI data across languages and labs, providing a resource for researchers interested in early language, as well as a platform for novel analyses. The site allows interactive exploration of patterns of vocabulary growth at the level of both individual children and particular words. We also introduce wordbankr, a software package for connecting to the database directly. Together, these tools extend the abilities of students and researchers to explore quantitative trends in vocabulary development.

  View details for DOI 10.1017/S0305000916000209

  View details for Web of Science ID 000399955900008

• A Collaborative Approach to Infant Research: Promoting Reproducibility, Best Practices, and Theory-Building. Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies Frank, M. C., Bergelson, E., Bergmann, C., Cristia, A., Floccia, C., Gervain, J., Hamlin, J. K., Hannon, E. E., Kline, M., Levelt, C., Lew-Williams, C., Nazzi, T., Panneton, R., Rabagliati, H., Soderstrom, M., Sullivan, J., Waxman, S., Yurovsky, D. 2017; 22 (4): 421-435

  Abstract

  The ideal of scientific progress is that we accumulate measurements and integrate these into theory, but recent discussion of replicability issues has cast doubt on whether psychological research conforms to this model. Developmental research-especially with infant participants-also has discipline-specific replicability challenges, including small samples and limited measurement methods. Inspired by collaborative replication efforts in cognitive and social psychology, we describe a proposal for assessing and promoting replicability in infancy research: large-scale, multi-laboratory replication efforts aiming for a more precise understanding of key developmental phenomena. The ManyBabies project, our instantiation of this proposal, will not only help us estimate how robust and replicable these phenomena are, but also gain new theoretical insights into how they vary across ages, linguistic communities, and measurement methods. This project has the potential for a variety of positive outcomes, including less-biased estimates of theoretically important effects, estimates of variability that can be used for later study planning, and a series of best-practices blueprints for future infancy research.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/infa.12182

  View details for PubMedID 31772509

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC6879177

• Pragmatic Language Interpretation as Probabilistic Inference. Trends in cognitive sciences Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2016; 20 (11): 818-829

  Abstract

  Understanding language requires more than the use of fixed conventions and more than decoding combinatorial structure. Instead, comprehenders make exquisitely sensitive inferences about what utterances mean given their knowledge of the speaker, language, and context. Building on developments in game theory and probabilistic modeling, we describe the rational speech act (RSA) framework for pragmatic reasoning. RSA models provide a principled way to formalize inferences about meaning in context; they have been used to make successful quantitative predictions about human behavior in a variety of different tasks and situations, and they explain why complex phenomena, such as hyperbole and vagueness, occur. More generally, they provide a computational framework for integrating linguistic structure, world knowledge, and context in pragmatic language understanding.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.005

  View details for PubMedID 27692852

• Inferring word meanings by assuming that speakers are informative. Cognitive psychology Frank, M. C., Goodman, N. D. 2014; 75: 80-96

  Abstract

  Language comprehension is more than a process of decoding the literal meaning of a speaker's utterance. Instead, by making the assumption that speakers choose their words to be informative in context, listeners routinely make pragmatic inferences that go beyond the linguistic data. If language learners make these same assumptions, they should be able to infer word meanings in otherwise ambiguous situations. We use probabilistic tools to formalize these kinds of informativeness inferences-extending a model of pragmatic language comprehension to the acquisition setting-and present four experiments whose data suggest that preschool children can use informativeness to infer word meanings and that adult judgments track quantitatively with informativeness.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2014.08.002

  View details for PubMedID 25238461

• Predicting Pragmatic Reasoning in Language Games SCIENCE Frank, M. C., Goodman, N. D. 2012; 336 (6084): 998-998

  Abstract

  One of the most astonishing features of human language is its capacity to convey information efficiently in context. Many theories provide informal accounts of communicative inference, yet there have been few successes in making precise, quantitative predictions about pragmatic reasoning. We examined judgments about simple referential communication games, modeling behavior in these games by assuming that speakers attempt to be informative and that listeners use Bayesian inference to recover speakers' intended referents. Our model provides a close, parameter-free fit to human judgments, suggesting that the use of information-theoretic tools to predict pragmatic reasoning may lead to more effective formal models of communication.

  View details for DOI 10.1126/science.1218633

  View details for Web of Science ID 000304406800035

  View details for PubMedID 22628647

• Modeling human performance in statistical word segmentation COGNITION Frank, M. C., Goldwater, S., Griffiths, T. L., Tenenbaum, J. B. 2010; 117 (2): 107-125

  Abstract

  The ability to discover groupings in continuous stimuli on the basis of distributional information is present across species and across perceptual modalities. We investigate the nature of the computations underlying this ability using statistical word segmentation experiments in which we vary the length of sentences, the amount of exposure, and the number of words in the languages being learned. Although the results are intuitive from the perspective of a language learner (longer sentences, less training, and a larger language all make learning more difficult), standard computational proposals fail to capture several of these results. We describe how probabilistic models of segmentation can be modified to take into account some notion of memory or resource limitations in order to provide a closer match to human performance.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.07.005

  View details for Web of Science ID 000283979000001

  View details for PubMedID 20832060

• Remote Infant Studies of Early Learning (RISE): Scalable online replications of key findings in infant cognitive development. Developmental psychology Tenenbaum, E. J., Stone, C., Vu, M. H., Hare, M., Gilyard, K. R., Arunachalam, S., Bergelson, E., Bishop, S. L., Frank, M. C., Hamlin, J. K., Kline Struhl, M., Landa, R. J., Lew-Williams, C., Libertus, M. E., Luyster, R. J., Markant, J., Sabatos-DeVito, M., Sheinkopf, S. J., Wagner, J. B., Park, K., Soderling, A. I., Waterman, A. K., Grapel, J. N., Bermano, A., Erel, Y., Jeste, S. 2024

  Abstract

  The current article describes the Remote Infant Studies of Early Learning, a battery intended to provide robust looking time measures of cognitive development that can be administered remotely to inform our understanding of individual developmental trajectories in typical and atypical populations, particularly infant siblings of autistic children. This battery was developed to inform our understanding of early cognitive and language development in infants who will later receive a diagnosis of autism. Using tasks that have been successfully implemented in lab-based paradigms, we included assessments of attention, memory, prediction, word recognition, numeracy, multimodal processing, and social evaluation. This study reports results on the feasibility and validity of administration of this task battery in 55 infants who were recruited from the general population at age 6 months (n = 29; 14 female, 15 male) or 12 months (n = 26; 14 female, 12 male; 62% White, 13% Asian, 1% Black, 1% Pacific Islander, 22% more than one race; 6% Hispanic). Infant looking behavior was recorded during at-home administration of the battery on the family's home computer and automatically coded for attention to stimuli using iCatcher+, an open-access software that assesses infant gaze direction. Results indicate that while some tasks replicated lab-based findings (attention, memory, prediction, and numeracy), others did not (word recognition, multimodal processing, and social evaluation). These findings will inform efforts to refine the battery as we continue to develop a robust set of tasks to improve the understanding of early cognitive development at the individual level in general and clinical populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/dev0001849

  View details for PubMedID 39531700

• Referential transparency of verbs in child-directed input by Japanese and American caregivers. Journal of child language Fitch, A., Lieberman, A. M., Frank, M. C., Brough, J., Valleau, M., Arunachalam, S. 2024: 1-16

  Abstract

  Children acquiring Japanese differ from those acquiring English with regard to the rate at which verbs are learned (Fernald & Morikawa, ). One possible explanation is that Japanese caregivers use verbs in referentially transparent contexts, which facilitate the form-meaning link. We examined this hypothesis by assessing differences in verb usage by Japanese and American caregivers during dyadic play with their infants (5-22 months). We annotated verb-containing utterances for elements associated with referential transparency and compared across groups. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found that Japanese caregivers used verbs in fewer referentially transparent contexts than American caregivers, or did not significantly differ from American caregivers, depending on the measure. These findings cast doubt on cross-cultural differences in referential transparency between Japanese and American child-directed input.

  View details for DOI 10.1017/S0305000924000382

  View details for PubMedID 39444282

• Testing the relationship between preferences for infant-directed speech and vocabulary development: A multi-lab study. Journal of child language Soderstrom, M., Rocha-Hidalgo, J., Muñoz, L. E., Bochynska, A., Werker, J. F., Skarabela, B., Seidl, A., Ryjova, Y., Rennels, J. L., Potter, C. E., Paulus, M., Ota, M., Olesen, N. M., Nave, K. M., Mayor, J., Martin, A., Machon, L. C., Lew-Williams, C., Ko, E. S., Kim, H., Kartushina, N., Kammermeier, M., Jessop, A., Hay, J. F., Havron, N., Hannon, E. E., Kiley Hamlin, J., Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Gampe, A., Fritzsche, T., Frank, M. C., Durrant, S., Davies, C., Cashon, C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Boyce, V., Black, A. K., Bergmann, C., Anderson, L., Alshakhori, M. K., Al-Hoorie, A. H., Tsui, A. S. 2024: 1-26

  Abstract

  From early on, infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS), and exposure to IDS has been correlated with language outcome measures such as vocabulary. The present multi-laboratory study explores this issue by investigating whether there is a link between early preference for IDS and later vocabulary size. Infants' preference for IDS was tested as part of the ManyBabies 1 project, and follow-up CDI data were collected from a subsample of this dataset at 18 and 24 months. A total of 341 (18 months) and 327 (24 months) infants were tested across 21 laboratories. In neither preregistered analyses with North American and UK English, nor exploratory analyses with a larger sample did we find evidence for a relation between IDS preference and later vocabulary. We discuss implications of this finding in light of recent work suggesting that IDS preference measured in the laboratory has low test-retest reliability.

  View details for DOI 10.1017/S0305000924000254

  View details for PubMedID 39422249

• Limited evidence of test-retest reliability in infant-directed speech preference in a large preregistered infant experiment. Developmental science Schreiner, M. S., Zettersten, M., Bergmann, C., Frank, M. C., Fritzsche, T., Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Hamlin, K., Kartushina, N., Kellier, D. J., Mani, N., Mayor, J., Saffran, J., Shukla, M., Silverstein, P., Soderstrom, M., Lippold, M. 2024: e13551

  Abstract

  Test-retest reliability-establishing that measurements remain consistent across multiple testing sessions-is critical to measuring, understanding, and predicting individual differences in infant language development. However, previous attempts to establish measurement reliability in infant speech perception tasks are limited, and reliability of frequently used infant measures is largely unknown. The current study investigated the test-retest reliability of infants' preference for infant-directed speech over adult-directed speech in a large sample (N=158) in the context of the ManyBabies1 collaborative research project. Labs were asked to bring in participating infants for a second appointment retesting infants on their preference for infant-directed speech. This approach allowed us to estimate test-retest reliability across three different methods used to investigate preferential listening in infancy: the head-turn preference procedure, central fixation, and eye-tracking. Overall, we found no consistent evidence of test-retest reliability in measures of infants' speech preference (overall r=0.09, 95% CI [-0.06,0.25]). While increasing the number of trials that infants needed to contribute for inclusion in the analysis revealed a numeric growth in test-retest reliability, it also considerably reduced the study's effective sample size. Therefore, future research on infant development should take into account that not all experimental measures may be appropriate for assessing individual differences between infants. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We assessed test-retest reliability of infants' preference for infant-directed over adult-directed speech in a large pre-registered sample (N=158). There was no consistent evidence of test-retest reliability in measures of infants' speech preference. Applying stricter criteria for the inclusion of participants may lead to higher test-retest reliability, but at the cost of substantial decreases in sample size. Developmental research relying on stable individual differences should consider the underlying reliability of its measures.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.13551

  View details for PubMedID 39036879

• United States-China differences in cognition and perception across 12 tasks: Replicability, robustness, and within-culture variation. Journal of experimental psychology. General Cao, A., Carstensen, A., Gao, S., Frank, M. C. 2024

  Abstract

  Cultural differences between the United States and China have been investigated using a broad array of psychological tasks measuring differences between cognition, language, perception, and reasoning. Using online convenience samples of adults, we conducted two large-scale replications of 12 tasks previously reported to show differences between Western and East Asian cultures. Our results showed a heterogeneous pattern of successes and failures: five tasks yielded robust cultural differences, while five showed no difference between cultures, and two showed a small difference in the opposite direction. We observed moderate reliability for all multitrial tasks, but there was little relation between task scores. As in prior work, cross-cultural differences in cognition (in those tasks showing differences) were not strongly related to explicit measures of cultural identity and behavior. All of our tasks, data, and analyses are openly available for reuse, providing a foundation for future studies that seek to establish a robust and replicable science of cross-cultural difference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/xge0001559

  View details for PubMedID 38869874

• Learning the Meanings of Function Words From Grounded Language Using a Visual Question Answering Model. Cognitive science Portelance, E., Frank, M. C., Jurafsky, D. 2024; 48 (5): e13448

  Abstract

  Interpreting a seemingly simple function word like "or," "behind," or "more" can require logical, numerical, and relational reasoning. How are such words learned by children? Prior acquisition theories have often relied on positing a foundation of innate knowledge. Yet recent neural-network-based visual question answering models apparently can learn to use function words as part of answering questions about complex visual scenes. In this paper, we study what these models learn about function words, in the hope of better understanding how the meanings of these words can be learned by both models and children. We show that recurrent models trained on visually grounded language learn gradient semantics for function words requiring spatial and numerical reasoning. Furthermore, we find that these models can learn the meanings of logical connectives and and or without any prior knowledge of logical reasoning as well as early evidence that they are sensitive to alternative expressions when interpreting language. Finally, we show that word learning difficulty is dependent on the frequency of models' input. Our findings offer proof-of-concept evidence that it is possible to learn the nuanced interpretations of function words in a visually grounded context by using non-symbolic general statistical learning algorithms, without any prior knowledge of linguisticmeaning.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.13448

  View details for PubMedID 38742768

• Parallel developmental changes in children's production and recognition of line drawings of visual concepts. Nature communications Long, B., Fan, J. E., Huey, H., Chai, Z., Frank, M. C. 2024; 15 (1): 1191

  Abstract

  Childhood is marked by the rapid accumulation of knowledge and the prolific production of drawings. We conducted a systematic study of how children create and recognize line drawings of visual concepts. We recruited 2-10-year-olds to draw 48 categories via a kiosk at a children's museum, resulting in >37K drawings. We analyze changes in the category-diagnostic information in these drawings using vision algorithms and annotations of object parts. We find developmental gains in children's inclusion of category-diagnostic information that are not reducible to variation in visuomotor control or effort. Moreover, even unrecognizable drawings contain information about the animacy and size of the category children tried to draw. Using guessing games at the same kiosk, we find that children improve across childhood at recognizing each other's line drawings. This work leverages vision algorithms to characterize developmental changes in children's drawings and suggests that these changes reflect refinements in children's internal representations.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-44529-9

  View details for PubMedID 38331850

  View details for PubMedCentralID 2991405

• The role of translation equivalents in bilingual word learning. Developmental science Tan, A. W., Marchman, V. A., Frank, M. C. 2024: e13476

  Abstract

  Bilingual environments present an important context for word learning. One feature of bilingual environments is the existence of translation equivalents (TEs)-words in different languages that share similar meanings. Documenting TE learning over development may give us insight into the mechanisms underlying word learning in young bilingual children. Prior studies of TE learning have often been confounded by the fact that increases in overall vocabulary size with age lead to greater opportunities for learning TEs. To address this confound, we employed an item-level analysis, which controls for the age trajectory of each item independently. We used Communicative Development Inventory data from four bilingual datasets (two English-Spanish and two English-French; total N = 419) for modeling. Results indicated that knowing a word's TE increased the likelihood of knowing that word for younger children and for TEs that are more similar phonologically. These effects were consistent across datasets, but varied across lexical categories. Thus, TEs may allow bilingual children to bootstrap their early word learning in one language using their knowledge of the other language. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Bilingual children must learn words that share a common meaning across both languages, that is, translation equivalents, like dog in English and perro in Spanish. Item-level models explored how translation equivalents affect word learning, in addition to child-level (e.g., exposure) and item-level (e.g., phonological similarity) factors. Knowing a word increased the probability of knowing its corresponding translation equivalent, particularly for younger children and for more phonologically-similar translation equivalents. These findings suggest that young bilingual children use their word knowledge in one language to bootstrap their learning of words in the other language.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.13476

  View details for PubMedID 38226762

• Comparing apples to manzanas and oranges to naranjas: A new measure of English-Spanish vocabulary for dual language learners. Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Kachergis, G., Masek, L. R., Gonzalez, S. L., Soska, K. C., Herzberg, O., Xu, M., Adolph, K. E., Gilmore, R. O., Bornstein, M. H., Casasola, M., Fausey, C. M., Frank, M. C., Goldin-Meadow, S., Gros-Louis, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Iverson, J., Lew-Williams, C., MacWhinney, B., Marchman, V. A., Naigles, L., Namy, L., Perry, L. K., Rowe, M., Sheya, A., Soderstrom, M., Song, L., Walle, E., Warlaumont, A. S., Yoshida, H., Yu, C., Yurovsky, D. 2024

  Abstract

  The valid assessment of vocabulary development in dual-language-learning infants is critical to developmental science. We developed the Dual Language Learners English-Spanish (DLL-ES) Inventories to measure vocabularies of U.S. English-Spanish DLLs. The inventories provide translation equivalents for all Spanish and English items on Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) short forms; extended inventories based on CDI long forms; and Spanish language-variety options. Item-Response Theory analyses applied to Wordbank and Web-CDI data (n = 2603, 12-18 months; n = 6722, 16-36 months; half female; 1% Asian, 3% Black, 2% Hispanic, 30% White, 64% unknown) showed near-perfect associations between DLL-ES and CDI long-form scores. Interviews with 10 Hispanic mothers of 18- to 24-month-olds (2 White, 1 Black, 7 multi-racial; 6 female) provide a proof of concept for the value of the DLL-ES for assessing the vocabularies of DLLs.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/infa.12571

  View details for PubMedID 38217508

• Evidence for Infant-directed Speech Preference Is Consistent Across Large-scale, Multi-site Replication and Meta-analysis. Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science Zettersten, M., Cox, C., Bergmann, C., Tsui, A. S., Soderstrom, M., Mayor, J., Lundwall, R. A., Lewis, M., Kosie, J. E., Kartushina, N., Fusaroli, R., Frank, M. C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Black, A. K., Mathur, M. B. 2024; 8: 439-461

  Abstract

  There is substantial evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech (IDS) to adult-directed speech (ADS). The strongest evidence for this claim has come from two large-scale investigations: i) a community-augmented meta-analysis of published behavioral studies and ii) a large-scale multi-lab replication study. In this paper, we aim to improve our understanding of the IDS preference and its boundary conditions by combining and comparing these two data sources across key population and design characteristics of the underlying studies. Our analyses reveal that both the meta-analysis and multi-lab replication show moderate effect sizes (d 0.35 for each estimate) and that both of these effects persist when relevant study-level moderators are added to the models (i.e., experimental methods, infant ages, and native languages). However, while the overall effect size estimates were similar, the two sources diverged in the effects of key moderators: both infant age and experimental method predicted IDS preference in the multi-lab replication study, but showed no effect in the meta-analysis. These results demonstrate that the IDS preference generalizes across a variety of experimental conditions and sampling characteristics, while simultaneously identifying key differences in the empirical picture offered by each source individually and pinpointing areas where substantial uncertainty remains about the influence of theoretically central moderators on IDS preference. Overall, our results show how meta-analyses and multi-lab replications can be used in tandem to understand the robustness and generalizability of developmental phenomena.

  View details for DOI 10.1162/opmi_a_00134

  View details for PubMedID 38665547

• Conducting Developmental Research Online vs. In-Person: A Meta-Analysis. Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science Chuey, A., Boyce, V., Cao, A., Frank, M. C. 2024; 8: 795-808

  Abstract

  An increasing number of psychological experiments with children are being conducted using online platforms, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Individual replications have compared the findings of particular experiments online and in-person, but the general effect of data collection method on data collected from children is still unknown. Therefore, the goal of the current meta-analysis is to estimate the average difference in effect size for developmental studies conducted online compared to the same studies conducted in-person. Our pre-registered analysis includes 211 effect sizes calculated from 30 papers with 3282 children, ranging in age from four months to six years. The estimated effect size for studies conducted online was slightly smaller than for their counterparts conducted in-person, a difference of d = -.05, but this difference was not significant, 95% CI = [-.17, .07]. We examined several potential moderators of the effect of online testing, including the role of dependent measure (looking vs verbal), online study method (moderated vs unmoderated), and age, but none of these were significant. The literature to date thus suggests-on average-small differences in results between in-person and online experimentation.

  View details for DOI 10.1162/opmi_a_00147

  View details for PubMedID 38957506

• Openly accessible LLMs can help us to understand human cognition. Nature human behaviour Frank, M. C. 2023

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41562-023-01732-4

  View details for PubMedID 37985910

  View details for PubMedCentralID 9963545

• Broadening Convenience Samples to Advance Theoretical Progress and Avoid Bias in Developmental Science JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT Doebel, S., Frank, M. C. 2023

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15248372.2023.2270055

  View details for Web of Science ID 001101536500001

• Eleven years of student replication projects provide evidence on the correlates of replicability in psychology. Royal Society open science Boyce, V., Mathur, M., Frank, M. C. 2023; 10 (11): 231240

  Abstract

  Cumulative scientific progress requires empirical results that are robust enough to support theory construction and extension. Yet in psychology, some prominent findings have failed to replicate, and large-scale studies suggest replicability issues are widespread. The identification of predictors of replication success is limited by the difficulty of conducting large samples of independent replication experiments, however: most investigations reanalyse the same set of 170 replications. We introduce a new dataset of 176 replications from students in a graduate-level methods course. Replication results were judged to be successful in 49% of replications; of the 136 where effect sizes could be numerically compared, 46% had point estimates within the prediction interval of the original outcome (versus the expected 95%). Larger original effect sizes and within-participants designs were especially related to replication success. Our results indicate that, consistent with prior reports, the robustness of the psychology literature is low enough to limit cumulative progress by student investigators.

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rsos.231240

  View details for PubMedID 38026006

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10645069

• A unified approach to demographic data collection for research with young children across diverse cultures. Developmental psychology Singh, L., Barokova, M. D., Baumgartner, H. A., Lopera-Perez, D. C., Omane, P. O., Sheskin, M., Yuen, F. L., Wu, Y., Alcock, K. J., Altmann, E. C., Bazhydai, M., Carstensen, A., Chan, K. C., Chuan-Peng, H., Dal Ben, R., Franchin, L., Kosie, J. E., Lew-Williams, C., Okocha, A., Reinelt, T., Schuwerk, T., Soderstrom, M., Tsui, A. S., Frank, M. C. 2023

  Abstract

  Culture is a key determinant of children's development both in its own right and as a measure of generalizability of developmental phenomena. Studying the role of culture in development requires information about participants' demographic backgrounds. However, both reporting and treatment of demographic data are limited and inconsistent in child development research. A barrier to reporting demographic data in a consistent fashion is that no standardized tool currently exists to collect these data. Variation in cultural expectations, family structures, and life circumstances across communities make the creation of a unifying instrument challenging. Here, we present a framework to standardize demographic reporting for early child development (birth to 3 years of age), focusing on six core sociodemographic construct categories: biological information, gestational status, health status, community of descent, caregiving environment, and socioeconomic status. For each category, we discuss potential constructs and measurement items and provide guidance for their use and adaptation to diverse contexts. These items are stored in an open repository of context-adapted questionnaires that provide a consistent approach to obtaining and reporting demographic information so that these data can be archived and shared in a more standardized format. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/dev0001623

  View details for PubMedID 37843515

• Developmental changes in drawing production under different memory demands in a U.S. and Chinese sample. Developmental psychology Long, B., Wang, Y., Christie, S., Frank, M. C., Fan, J. E. 2023; 59 (10): 1784-1793

  Abstract

  Children's drawings of common object categories become dramatically more recognizable across childhood. What are the major factors that drive developmental changes in children's drawings? To what degree are children's drawings a product of their changing internal category representations versus limited by their visuomotor abilities or their ability to recall the relevant visual information? To explore these questions, we examined the degree to which developmental changes in drawing recognizability vary across different drawing tasks that vary in memory demands (i.e., drawing from verbal vs. picture cues) and with children's shape-tracing abilities across two geographical locations (San Jose, United States, and Beijing, China). We collected digital shape tracings and drawings of common object categories (e.g., cat, airplane) from 4- to 9-year-olds (N = 253). The developmental trajectory of drawing recognizability was remarkably similar when children were asked to draw from pictures versus verbal cues and across these two geographical locations. In addition, our Beijing sample produced more recognizable drawings but showed similar tracing abilities to children from San Jose. Overall, this work suggests that the developmental trajectory of children's drawings is remarkably consistent and not easily explainable by changes in visuomotor control or working memory; instead, changes in children's drawings over development may at least partly reflect changes in the internal representations of object categories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/dev0001600

  View details for PubMedID 37768614

• The BabyView camera: Designing a new head-mounted camera to capture children's early social and visual environments. Behavior research methods Long, B., Goodin, S., Kachergis, G., Marchman, V. A., Radwan, S. F., Sparks, R. Z., Xiang, V., Zhuang, C., Hsu, O., Newman, B., Yamins, D. L., Frank, M. C. 2023

  Abstract

  Head-mounted cameras have been used in developmental psychology research for more than a decade to provide a rich and comprehensive view of what infants see during their everyday experiences. However, variation between these devices has limited the field's ability to compare results across studies and across labs. Further, the video data captured by these cameras to date has been relatively low-resolution, limiting how well machine learning algorithms can operate over these rich video data. Here, we provide a well-tested and easily constructed design for a head-mounted camera assembly-the BabyView-developed in collaboration with Daylight Design, LLC., a professional product design firm. The BabyView collects high-resolution video, accelerometer, and gyroscope data from children approximately 6-30 months of age via a GoPro camera custom mounted on a soft child-safety helmet. The BabyView also captures a large, portrait-oriented vertical field-of-view that encompasses both children's interactions with objects and with their social partners. We detail our protocols for video data management and for handling sensitive data from home environments. We also provide customizable materials for onboarding families with the BabyView. We hope that these materials will encourage the wide adoption of the BabyView, allowing the field to collect high-resolution data that can link children's everyday environments with their learning outcomes.

  View details for DOI 10.3758/s13428-023-02206-1

  View details for PubMedID 37656342

  View details for PubMedCentralID 8375006

• Predicting Age of Acquisition for Children's Early Vocabulary in Five Languages Using Language Model Surprisal. Cognitive science Portelance, E., Duan, Y., Frank, M. C., Lupyan, G. 2023; 47 (9): e13334

  Abstract

  What makes a word easy to learn? Early-learned words are frequent and tend to name concrete referents. But words typically do not occur in isolation. Some words are predictable from their contexts; others are less so. Here, we investigate whether predictability relates to when children start producing different words (age of acquisition; AoA). We operationalized predictability in terms of a word's surprisal in child-directed speech, computed using n-gram and long-short-term-memory (LSTM) language models. Predictability derived from LSTMs was generally a better predictor than predictability derived from n-gram models. Across five languages, average surprisal was positively correlated with the AoA of predicates and function words but not nouns. Controlling for concreteness and word frequency, more predictable predicates and function words were learned earlier. Differences in predictability between languages were associated with cross-linguistic differences in AoA: the same word (when it was a predicate) was produced earlier in languages where the word was more predictable.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.13334

  View details for PubMedID 37695825

• Bridging the data gap between children and large language models. Trends in cognitive sciences Frank, M. C. 2023

  Abstract

  Large language models (LLMs) show intriguing emergent behaviors, yet they receive around four or five orders of magnitude more language data than human children. What accounts for this vast difference in sample efficiency? Candidate explanations include children's pre-existing conceptual knowledge, their use of multimodal grounding, and the interactive, social nature of their input.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.007

  View details for PubMedID 37659919

• Registered Reports in Child Development: Introduction to the Special Section. Child development Syed, M., Frank, M. C., Roisman, G. I. 2023

  Abstract

  Registered Reports (RRs) are an emerging format for publishing empirical journal articles in which the decision to publish an article is based on sound conceptualization, methods, and planned analyses rather than the specific nature of the results. This article introduces the Special Section on Registered Reports in Child Development by describing what RRs are and why they are necessary, outlining the thought process that guided the Special Section, describing key thematic insights across the eight articles included in the collection, and providing recommendations for developmental researchers interested in publishing via the RR format. This article also serves as a formal announcement that RRs will be a standard publishing option at Child Development, effective immediately.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdev.14003

  View details for PubMedID 37603615

• ACOUSTICALLY-DRIVEN PHONEME REMOVAL THAT PRESERVES VOCAL AFFECT CUES. Proceedings of the ... IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. ICASSP (Conference) Noufi, C., Berger, J., Frank, M., Parker, K., Bowling, D. L. 2023; 2023

  Abstract

  In this paper, we propose a method for removing linguistic information from speech for the purpose of isolating paralinguistic indicators of affect. The immediate utility of this method lies in clinical tests of sensitivity to vocal affect that are not confounded by language, which is impaired in a variety of clinical populations. The method is based on simultaneous recordings of speech audio and electroglotto-graphic (EGG) signals. The speech audio signal is used to estimate the average vocal tract filter response and amplitude envelop. The EGG signal supplies a direct correlate of voice source activity that is mostly independent of phonetic articulation. These signals are used to create a third signal designed to capture as much paralinguistic information from the vocal production system as possible-maximizing the retention of bioacoustic cues to affect-while eliminating phonetic cues to verbal meaning. To evaluate the success of this method, we studied the perception of corresponding speech audio and transformed EGG signals in an affect rating experiment with online listeners. The results show a high degree of similarity in the perceived affect of matched signals, indicating that our method is effective.

  View details for DOI 10.1109/icassp49357.2023.10095942

  View details for PubMedID 37701064

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10495117

• How to build up big team science: a practical guide for large-scale collaborations. Royal Society open science Baumgartner, H. A., Alessandroni, N., Byers-Heinlein, K., Frank, M. C., Hamlin, J. K., Soderstrom, M., Voelkel, J. G., Willer, R., Yuen, F., Coles, N. A. 2023; 10 (6): 230235

  Abstract

  The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of big team science (BTS), endeavours where a comparatively large number of researchers pool their intellectual and/or material resources in pursuit of a common goal. Despite this burgeoning interest, there exists little guidance on how to create, manage and participate in these collaborations. In this paper, we integrate insights from a multi-disciplinary set of BTS initiatives to provide a how-to guide for BTS. We first discuss initial considerations for launching a BTS project, such as building the team, identifying leadership, governance, tools and open science approaches. We then turn to issues related to running and completing a BTS project, such as study design, ethical approvals and issues related to data collection, management and analysis. Finally, we address topics that present special challenges for BTS, including authorship decisions, collaborative writing and team decision-making.

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rsos.230235

  View details for PubMedID 37293356

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10245199

• An individual differences perspective on pragmatic abilities in the preschool years. Developmental science Bohn, M., Tessler, M. H., Kordt, C., Hausmann, T., Frank, M. C. 2023: e13401

  Abstract

  Pragmatic abilities are fundamental to successful language use and learning. Individual differences studies contribute to understanding the psychological processes involved in pragmatic reasoning. Small sample sizes, insufficient measurement tools, and a lack of theoretical precision have hindered progress, however. Three studies addressed these challenges in three- to 5-year-old German-speaking children (N = 228, 121 female). Studies 1 and 2 assessed the psychometric properties of six pragmatics tasks. Study 3 investigated relations among pragmatics tasks and between pragmatics and other cognitive abilities. The tasks were found to measure stable variation between individuals. Via a computational cognitive model, individual differences were traced back to a latent pragmatics construct. This presents the basis for understanding the relations between pragmatics and other cognitive abilities. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Individual differences in pragmatic abilities are important to understanding variation in language development. Research in this domain lacks a precise theoretical framework and psychometrically high-quality measures. We present six tasks capturing a wide range of pragmatic abilities with excellent re-test reliability. We use a computational cognitive model to provide a substantive theory of individual differences in pragmatic abilities.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.13401

  View details for PubMedID 37089076

• 'Big team' science challenges us to reconsider authorship. Nature human behaviour Coles, N. A., DeBruine, L. M., Azevedo, F., Baumgartner, H. A., Frank, M. C. 2023

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41562-023-01572-2

  View details for PubMedID 36928785

  View details for PubMedCentralID 4792175

• Conceptual Hierarchy in Child-Directed Speech: Implicit Cues are More Reliable JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT Wilson, K., Frank, M. C., Fourtassi, A. 2023

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15248372.2023.2178436

  View details for Web of Science ID 000939693800001

• Pragmatic Felicity Facilitates the Production and Comprehension of Negation COLLABRA-PSYCHOLOGY Nordmeyer, A. E., Frank, M. C. 2023; 9 (1)

  View details for DOI 10.1525/collabra.67931

  View details for Web of Science ID 000924271600001

• Modeling Individual Differences in Children's Information Integration During Pragmatic Word Learning. Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science Bohn, M., Schmidt, L. S., Schulze, C., Frank, M. C., Tessler, M. H. 2022; 6: 311-326

  Abstract

  Pragmatics is foundational to language use and learning. Computational cognitive models have been successfully used to predict pragmatic phenomena in adults and children - on an aggregate level. It is unclear if they can be used to predict behavior on an individual level. We address this question in children (N = 60, 3- to 5-year-olds), taking advantage of recent work on pragmatic cue integration. In Part 1, we use data from four independent tasks to estimate child-specific sensitivity parameters to three information sources: semantic knowledge, expectations about speaker informativeness, and sensitivity to common ground. In Part 2, we use these parameters to generate participant-specific trial-by-trial predictions for a new task that jointly manipulated all three information sources. The model accurately predicted children's behavior in the majority of trials. This work advances a substantive theory of individual differences in which the primary locus of developmental variation is sensitivity to individual information sources.

  View details for DOI 10.1162/opmi_a_00069

  View details for PubMedID 36993141

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10042310

• Estimating Demographic Bias on Tests of Children's Early Vocabulary. Topics in cognitive science Kachergis, G., Francis, N., Frank, M. C. 2022

  Abstract

  Children's early language skill has been linked to later educational outcomes, making it important to measure early language accurately. Parent-reported instruments, such as the Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs), have been shown to provide reliable and valid measures of children's aggregate early language skill. However, CDIs contain hundreds of vocabulary items, some of which may not be heard (and thus learned) equally often by children of varying backgrounds. This study used a database of American English CDIs to identify words demonstrating strong bias for particular demographic groups of children, on dimensions of sex (male vs. female), race (white vs. non-white), and maternal education (high vs. low). For each dimension, many items showed bias; removing these items slightly reduced the magnitude of race- and education-based group differences, but did not eliminate them. Additionally, we investigated how well the relative frequency of words spoken to young girls versus boys predicted sex-based word learning bias, and discuss possible sources of demographic differences in early word learning.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/tops.12635

  View details for PubMedID 36479833

• Plurality Is a Good Start, but It's Time for Unification: A Commentary on "Computational Modeling of Bilingual Language Learning: Current Models and Future Directions" LANGUAGE LEARNING Kachergis, G., Tan, A., Frank, M. C. 2022

  View details for DOI 10.1111/lang.12531

  View details for Web of Science ID 000888466200001

• Context-Dependent Learning of Linguistic Disjunction. Journal of child language Jasbi, M., Jaggi, A., Clark, E. V., Frank, M. C. 2022: 1-36

  Abstract

  What are the constraints, cues, and mechanisms that help learners create successful word-meaning mappings? This study takes up linguistic disjunction and looks at cues and mechanisms that can help children learn the meaning of or. We first used a large corpus of parent-child interactions to collect statistics on or uses. Children started producing or between 18-30 months and by 42 months, their rate of production reached a plateau. Second, we annotated for the interpretation of disjunction in child-directed speech. Parents used or mostly as exclusive disjunction, typically accompanied by rise-fall intonation and logically inconsistent disjuncts. But when these two cues were absent, disjunction was generally not exclusive. Our computational modeling suggests that an ideal learner could successfully interpret an English disjunction (as exclusive or not) by mapping forms to meanings after partitioning the input according to the intonational and logical cues available in child-directed speech.

  View details for DOI 10.1017/S0305000922000502

  View details for PubMedID 36353801

• Habituation Reflects Optimal Exploration Over Noisy Perceptual Samples. Topics in cognitive science Cao, A., Raz, G., Saxe, R., Frank, M. C. 2022

  Abstract

  From birth, humans constantly make decisions about what to look at and for how long. Yet, the mechanism behind such decision-making remains poorly understood. Here, we present the rational action, noisy choice for habituation (RANCH) model. RANCH is a rational learning model that takes noisy perceptual samples from stimuli and makes sampling decisions based on expected information gain (EIG). The model captures key patterns of looking time documented in developmental research: habituation and dishabituation. We evaluated the model with adult looking time collected from a paradigm analogous to the infant habituation paradigm. We compared RANCH with baseline models (no learning model, no perceptual noise model) and models with alternative linking hypotheses (Surprisal, KL divergence). We showed that (1) learning and perceptual noise are critical assumptions of the model, and (2) Surprisal and KL are good proxies for EIG under the current learning context.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/tops.12631

  View details for PubMedID 36322897

• A longitudinal analysis of the social information in infants' naturalistic visual experience using automated detections. Developmental psychology Long, B. L., Kachergis, G., Agrawal, K., Frank, M. C. 2022

  Abstract

  The faces and hands of caregivers and other social partners offer a rich source of social and causal information that is likely critical for infants' cognitive and linguistic development. Previous work using manual annotation strategies and cross-sectional data has found systematic changes in the proportion of faces and hands in the egocentric perspective of young infants. Here, we validated the use of a modern convolutional neural network (OpenPose) for the detection of faces and hands in naturalistic egocentric videos. We then applied this model to a longitudinal collection of more than 1,700 head-mounted camera videos from three children ages 6 to 32 months. Using these detections, we confirm and extend prior results from cross-sectional studies. First, we found a moderate decrease in the proportion of faces in children's view across age and a higher proportion of hands in view than previously reported. Second, we found variability in the proportion of faces and hands viewed by different children in different locations (e.g., living room vs. kitchen), suggesting that individual activity contexts may shape the social information that infants experience. Third, we found evidence that children may see closer, larger views of people, hands, and faces earlier in development. These longitudinal analyses provide an additional perspective on the changes in the social information in view across the first few years of life and suggest that pose detection models can successfully be applied to naturalistic egocentric video data sets to extract descriptives about infants' changing social environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/dev0001414

  View details for PubMedID 36227287

• Peekbank: An open, large-scale repository for developmental eye-tracking data of children's word recognition. Behavior research methods Zettersten, M., Yurovsky, D., Xu, T. L., Uner, S., Tsui, A. S., Schneider, R. M., Saleh, A. N., Meylan, S. C., Marchman, V. A., Mankewitz, J., MacDonald, K., Long, B., Lewis, M., Kachergis, G., Handa, K., deMayo, B., Carstensen, A., Braginsky, M., Boyce, V., Bhatt, N. S., Bergey, C. A., Frank, M. C. 2022

  Abstract

  The ability to rapidly recognize words and link them to referents is central to children's early language development. This ability, often called word recognition in the developmental literature, is typically studied in the looking-while-listening paradigm, which measures infants' fixation on a target object (vs. a distractor) after hearing a target label. We present a large-scale, open database of infant and toddler eye-tracking data from looking-while-listening tasks. The goal of this effort is to address theoretical and methodological challenges in measuring vocabulary development. We first present how we created the database, its features and structure, and associated tools for processing and accessing infant eye-tracking datasets. Using these tools, we then work through two illustrative examples to show how researchers can use Peekbank to interrogate theoretical and methodological questions about children's developing word recognition ability.

  View details for DOI 10.3758/s13428-022-01906-4

  View details for PubMedID 36002623

• Relational Reasoning and Generalization Using Nonsymbolic Neural Networks PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW Geiger, A., Carstensen, A., Frank, M. C., Potts, C. 2022

  Abstract

  The notion of equality (identity) is simple and ubiquitous, making it a key case study for broader questions about the representations supporting abstract relational reasoning. Previous work suggested that neural networks were not suitable models of human relational reasoning because they could not represent mathematically identity, the most basic form of equality. We revisit this question. In our experiments, we assess out-of-sample generalization of equality using both arbitrary representations and representations that have been pretrained on separate tasks to imbue them with structure. We find neural networks are able to learn (a) basic equality (mathematical identity), (b) sequential equality problems (learning ABA-patterned sequences) with only positive training instances, and (c) a complex, hierarchical equality problem with only basic equality training instances ("zero-shot" generalization). In the two latter cases, our models perform tasks proposed in previous work to demarcate human-unique symbolic abilities. These results suggest that essential aspects of symbolic reasoning can emerge from data-driven, nonsymbolic learning processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/rev0000371

  View details for Web of Science ID 000823987000001

  View details for PubMedID 35834185

• Exploring Patterns of Stability and Change in Caregivers' Word Usage Across Early Childhood. Cognitive science Jiang, H., Frank, M. C., Kulkarni, V., Fourtassi, A. 2022; 46 (7): e13177

  Abstract

  The linguistic input children receive across early childhood plays a crucial role in shaping their knowledge about the world. To study this input, researchers have begun applying distributional semantic models to large corpora of child-directed speech, extracting various patterns of word use/co-occurrence. Previous work using these models has not measured how these patterns may change throughout development, however. In this work, we leverage natural language processing methods-originally developed to study historical language change-to compare caregivers' use of words when talking to younger versus older children. Some words' usage changed more than others; this variability could be predicted based on the word's properties at both the individual and category levels. These findings suggest that caregivers' changing patterns of word use may play a role in scaffolding children's acquisition of conceptual structure in earlydevelopment.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.13177

  View details for PubMedID 35820173

• Simplicity and validity in infant research COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Kominsky, J. F., Lucca, K., Thomas, A. J., Frank, M. C., Hamlin, J. 2022; 63

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101213

  View details for Web of Science ID 000828152700006

• Online Computerized Adaptive Tests of Children's Vocabulary Development in English and Mexican Spanish. Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR Kachergis, G., Marchman, V. A., Dale, P. S., Mankewitz, J., Frank, M. C. 2022: 1-21

  Abstract

  PURPOSE: Measuring the growth of young children's vocabulary is important for researchers seeking to understand language learning as well as for clinicians aiming to identify early deficits. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are parent report instruments that offer a reliable and valid method for measuring early productive and receptive vocabulary across a number of languages. CDI forms typically include hundreds of words, however, and so the burden of completion is significant. We address this limitation by building on previous work using item response theory (IRT) models to create computer adaptive test (CAT) versions of the CDIs. We created CDI-CATs for both comprehension and production vocabulary, for both American English and Mexican Spanish.METHOD: Using a data set of 7,633 English-speaking children ages 12-36 months and 1,692 Spanish-speaking children ages 12-30 months, across three CDI forms (Words & Gestures, Words & Sentences, and CDI-III), we found that a 2-parameter logistic IRT model fits well for a majority of the 680 pooled vocabulary items. We conducted CAT simulations on this data set, assessing simulated tests of varying length (25-400 items).RESULTS: Even very short CATs recovered participant abilities very well with little bias across ages. An empirical validation study with N = 204 children ages 15-36 months showed a correlation of r = .92 between language ability estimated from full CDI versus CDI-CAT forms.CONCLUSION: We provide our item bank along with fitted parameters and other details, offer recommendations for how to construct CDI-CATs in new languages, and suggest when this type of assessment may or may not be appropriate.

  View details for DOI 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00372

  View details for PubMedID 35658517

• From partners to populations: A hierarchical Bayesian account of coordination and convention. Psychological review Hawkins, R. D., Franke, M., Frank, M. C., Goldberg, A. E., Smith, K., Griffiths, T. L., Goodman, N. D. 2022

  Abstract

  Languages are powerful solutions to coordination problems: They provide stable, shared expectations about how the words we say correspond to the beliefs and intentions in our heads. Yet, language use in a variable and nonstationary social environment requires linguistic representations to be flexible: Old words acquire new ad hoc or partner-specific meanings on the fly. In this article, we introduce continual hierarchical adaptation through inference (CHAI), a hierarchical Bayesian theory of coordination and convention formation that aims to reconcile the long-standing tension between these two basic observations. We argue that the central computational problem of communication is not simply transmission, as in classical formulations, but continual learning and adaptation over multiple timescales. Partner-specific common ground quickly emerges from social inferences within dyadic interactions, while community-wide social conventions are stable priors that have been abstracted away from interactions with multiple partners. We present new empirical data alongside simulations showing how our model provides a computational foundation for several phenomena that have posed a challenge for previous accounts: (a) the convergence to more efficient referring expressions across repeated interaction with the same partner, (b) the gradual transfer of partner-specific common ground to strangers, and (c) the influence of communicative context on which conventions eventually form. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/rev0000348

  View details for PubMedID 35420850

• Predicting Pragmatic Cue Integration in Adults' and Children's Inferences About Novel Word Meanings JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-GENERAL Bohn, M., Tessler, M., Merrick, M., Frank, M. C. 2022

  Abstract

  Language is learned in complex social settings where listeners must reconstruct speakers' intended meanings from context. To navigate this challenge, children can use pragmatic reasoning to learn the meaning of unfamiliar words. A critical challenge for pragmatic reasoning is that it requires integrating multiple information sources, which have typically been studied separately. Here we study this integration process. First, we experimentally isolate two sources of pragmatic information: expectations about informative communication and common ground. Next, we use a probabilistic model of conversational reasoning to formalize how these information sources should be combined and how this process might develop. We use this model to generate quantitative predictions, which we test against new experimental data from 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 243) and adults (N = 694). Results show close alignment between model predictions and data. Furthermore, the model provided a better explanation of the data compared with simpler alternative models assuming that participants selectively ignore one information source. This work integrates distinct sets of findings regarding information sources for early language learning and suggests that pragmatic reasoning models can provide a quantitative framework for understanding developmental changes in language learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/xge0001216

  View details for Web of Science ID 000778681000001

  View details for PubMedID 35389743

• Improving the generalizability of infant psychological research: The ManyBabies model. The Behavioral and brain sciences Visser, I., Bergmann, C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Dal Ben, R., Duch, W., Forbes, S., Franchin, L., Frank, M. C., Geraci, A., Hamlin, J. K., Kaldy, Z., Kulke, L., Laverty, C., Lew-Williams, C., Mateu, V., Mayor, J., Moreau, D., Nomikou, I., Schuwerk, T., Simpson, E. A., Singh, L., Soderstrom, M., Sullivan, J., van den Heuvel, M. I., Westermann, G., Yamada, Y., Zaadnoordijk, L., Zettersten, M. 2022; 45: e35

  Abstract

  Yarkoni's analysis clearly articulates a number of concerns limiting the generalizability and explanatory power of psychological findings, many of which are compounded in infancy research. ManyBabies addresses these concerns via a radically collaborative, large-scale and open approach to research that is grounded in theory-building, committed to diversification, and focused on understanding sources of variation.

  View details for DOI 10.1017/S0140525X21000455

  View details for PubMedID 35139960

• The puzzling relationship between multi-laboratory replications and meta-analyses of the published literature. Royal Society open science Lewis, M., Mathur, M. B., VanderWeele, T. J., Frank, M. C. 2022; 9 (2): 211499

  Abstract

  What is the best way to estimate the size of important effects? Should we aggregate across disparate findings using statistical meta-analysis, or instead run large, multi-laboratory replications (MLR)? A recent paper by Kvarven, Stromland and Johannesson (Kvarven et al. 2020 Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 423-434. (doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0787-z)) compared effect size estimates derived from these two different methods for 15 different psychological phenomena. The authors reported that, for the same phenomenon, the meta-analytic estimate tended to be about three times larger than the MLR estimate. These results are a specific example of a broader question: What is the relationship between meta-analysis and MLR estimates? Kvarven et al. suggested that their results undermine the value of meta-analysis. By contrast, we argue that both meta-analysis and MLR are informative, and that the discrepancy between the two estimates that they observed is in fact still largely unexplained. Informed by re-analyses of Kvarven et al.'s data and by other empirical evidence, we discuss possible sources of this discrepancy and argue that understanding the relationship between estimates obtained from these two methods is an important puzzle for future meta-scientific research.

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rsos.211499

  View details for PubMedID 35223059

• Automated detections reveal the social information in the changing infant view. Child development Long, B. L., Sanchez, A., Kraus, A. M., Agrawal, K., Frank, M. C. 2021

  Abstract

  How do postural developments affect infants' access to social information? We recorded egocentric and third-person video while infants and their caregivers (N=36, 8- to 16-month-olds, N=19 females) participated in naturalistic play sessions. We then validated the use of a neural network pose detection model to detect faces and hands in the infant view. We used this automated method to analyze our data and a prior egocentric video dataset (N=17, 12-month-olds). Infants' average posture and orientation with respect to their caregiver changed dramatically across this age range; both posture and orientation modulated access to social information. Together, these results confirm that infant's ability to move and act on the world plays a significant role in shaping the social information in their view.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdev.13648

  View details for PubMedID 34787894

• Moderated Online Data-Collection for Developmental Research: Methods and Replications FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY Chuey, A., Asaba, M., Bridgers, S., Carrillo, B., Dietz, G., Garcia, T., Leonard, J. A., Liu, S., Merrick, M., Radwan, S., Stegall, J., Velez, N., Woo, B., Wu, Y., Zhou, X. J., Frank, M. C., Gweon, H. 2021; 12: 734398

  Abstract

  Online data collection methods are expanding the ease and access of developmental research for researchers and participants alike. While its popularity among developmental scientists has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, its potential goes beyond just a means for safe, socially distanced data collection. In particular, advances in video conferencing software has enabled researchers to engage in face-to-face interactions with participants from nearly any location at any time. Due to the novelty of these methods, however, many researchers still remain uncertain about the differences in available approaches as well as the validity of online methods more broadly. In this article, we aim to address both issues with a focus on moderated (synchronous) data collected using video-conferencing software (e.g., Zoom). First, we review existing approaches for designing and executing moderated online studies with young children. We also present concrete examples of studies that implemented choice and verbal measures (Studies 1 and 2) and looking time (Studies 3 and 4) across both in-person and online moderated data collection methods. Direct comparison of the two methods within each study as well as a meta-analysis of all studies suggest that the results from the two methods are comparable, providing empirical support for the validity of moderated online data collection. Finally, we discuss current limitations of online data collection and possible solutions, as well as its potential to increase the accessibility, diversity, and replicability of developmental science.

  View details for DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.734398

  View details for Web of Science ID 000720000200001

  View details for PubMedID 34803813

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8595939

• Emotion as Information in Early Social Learning CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Wu, Y., Schulz, L. E., Frank, M. C., Gweon, H. 2021

  View details for DOI 10.1177/09637214211040779

  View details for Web of Science ID 000711431700001

• Adults' and Children's Comprehension of Linguistic Disjunction COLLABRA-PSYCHOLOGY Jasbi, M., Frank, M. C. 2021; 7 (1)

  View details for DOI 10.1525/collabra.27702

  View details for Web of Science ID 000706290900001

• A multi-lab study of bilingual infants: Exploring the preference for infant-directed speech. Advances in methods and practices in psychological science Byers-Heinlein, K., Tsui, A. S., Bergmann, C., Black, A. K., Brown, A., Carbajal, M. J., Durrant, S., Fennell, C. T., Fiévet, A. C., Frank, M. C., Gampe, A., Gervain, J., Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Hamlin, J. K., Havron, N., Hernik, M., Kerr, S., Killam, H., Klassen, K., Kosie, J. E., Kovács, Á. M., Lew-Williams, C., Liu, L., Mani, N., Marino, C., Mastroberardino, M., Mateu, V., Noble, C., Orena, A. J., Polka, L., Potter, C. E., Schreiner, M., Singh, L., Soderstrom, M., Sundara, M., Waddell, C., Werker, J. F., Wermelinger, S. 2021; 4 (1)

  Abstract

  From the earliest months of life, infants prefer listening to and learn better from infant-directed speech (IDS) than adult-directed speech (ADS). Yet, IDS differs within communities, across languages, and across cultures, both in form and in prevalence. This large-scale, multi-site study used the diversity of bilingual infant experiences to explore the impact of different types of linguistic experience on infants' IDS preference. As part of the multi-lab ManyBabies 1 project, we compared lab-matched samples of 333 bilingual and 385 monolingual infants' preference for North-American English IDS (cf. ManyBabies Consortium, 2020: ManyBabies 1), tested in 17 labs in 7 countries. Those infants were tested in two age groups: 6-9 months (the younger sample) and 12-15 months (the older sample). We found that bilingual and monolingual infants both preferred IDS to ADS, and did not differ in terms of the overall magnitude of this preference. However, amongst bilingual infants who were acquiring North-American English (NAE) as a native language, greater exposure to NAE was associated with a stronger IDS preference, extending the previous finding from ManyBabies 1 that monolinguals learning NAE as a native language showed a stronger preference than infants unexposed to NAE. Together, our findings indicate that IDS preference likely makes a similar contribution to monolingual and bilingual development, and that infants are exquisitely sensitive to the nature and frequency of different types of language input in their early environments.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/2515245920974622

  View details for PubMedID 35821764

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9273003

• The Development of Quantity Implicatures in Mandarin-Speaking Children LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Zhao, S., Ren, J., Frank, M. C., Zhou, P. 2021

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15475441.2021.1886935

  View details for Web of Science ID 000626598200001

• Do graded representations support abstract thought? CURRENT OPINION IN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Carstensen, A., Frank, M. C. 2021; 37: 90–97

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.10.009

  View details for Web of Science ID 000621215400015

• Unsupervised neural network models of the ventral visual stream. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Zhuang, C., Yan, S., Nayebi, A., Schrimpf, M., Frank, M. C., DiCarlo, J. J., Yamins, D. L. 2021; 118 (3)

  Abstract

  Deep neural networks currently provide the best quantitative models of the response patterns of neurons throughout the primate ventral visual stream. However, such networks have remained implausible as a model of the development of the ventral stream, in part because they are trained with supervised methods requiring many more labels than are accessible to infants during development. Here, we report that recent rapid progress in unsupervised learning has largely closed this gap. We find that neural network models learned with deep unsupervised contrastive embedding methods achieve neural prediction accuracy in multiple ventral visual cortical areas that equals or exceeds that of models derived using today's best supervised methods and that the mapping of these neural network models' hidden layers is neuroanatomically consistent across the ventral stream. Strikingly, we find that these methods produce brain-like representations even when trained solely with real human child developmental data collected from head-mounted cameras, despite the fact that these datasets are noisy and limited. We also find that semisupervised deep contrastive embeddings can leverage small numbers of labeled examples to produce representations with substantially improved error-pattern consistency to human behavior. Taken together, these results illustrate a use of unsupervised learning to provide a quantitative model of a multiarea cortical brain system and present a strong candidate for a biologically plausible computational theory of primate sensory learning.

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2014196118

  View details for PubMedID 33431673

• Analytic reproducibility in articles receiving open data badges at the journal Psychological Science: an observational study ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE Hardwicke, T. E., Bohn, M., MacDonald, K., Hembacher, E., Nuijten, M. B., Peloquin, B. N., DeMayo, B. E., Long, B., Yoon, E. J., Frank, M. C. 2021; 8 (1)

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rsos.201494

  View details for Web of Science ID 000607997400001

• Analytic reproducibility in articles receiving open data badges at the journal Psychological Science: an observational study. Royal Society open science Hardwicke, T. E., Bohn, M., MacDonald, K., Hembacher, E., Nuijten, M. B., Peloquin, B. N., deMayo, B. E., Long, B., Yoon, E. J., Frank, M. C. 2021; 8 (1): 201494

  Abstract

  For any scientific report, repeating the original analyses upon the original data should yield the original outcomes. We evaluated analytic reproducibility in 25 Psychological Science articles awarded open data badges between 2014 and 2015. Initially, 16 (64%, 95% confidence interval [43,81]) articles contained at least one 'major numerical discrepancy' (>10% difference) prompting us to request input from original authors. Ultimately, target values were reproducible without author involvement for 9 (36% [20,59]) articles; reproducible with author involvement for 6 (24% [8,47]) articles; not fully reproducible with no substantive author response for 3 (12% [0,35]) articles; and not fully reproducible despite author involvement for 7 (28% [12,51]) articles. Overall, 37 major numerical discrepancies remained out of 789 checked values (5% [3,6]), but original conclusions did not appear affected. Non-reproducibility was primarily caused by unclear reporting of analytic procedures. These results highlight that open data alone is not sufficient to ensure analytic reproducibility.

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rsos.201494

  View details for PubMedID 33614084

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7890505

• A Multilab Study of Bilingual Infants: Exploring the Preference for Infant-Directed Speech ADVANCES IN METHODS AND PRACTICES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Byers-Heinlein, K., Tsui, A., Bergmann, C., Black, A. K., Brown, A., Carbajal, M., Durrant, S., Fennell, C. T., Fievet, A., Frank, M. C., Gampe, A., Gervain, J., Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Hamlin, J., Havron, N., Hernik, M., Kerr, S., Killam, H., Klassen, K., Kosie, J. E., Kovacs, A., Lew-Williams, C., Liu, L., Mani, N., Marino, C., Mastroberardino, M., Mateu, V., Noble, C., Orena, A., Polka, L., Potter, C. E., Schreiner, M. S., Singh, L., Soderstrom, M., Sundara, M., Waddell, C., Werker, J. F., Wermelinger, S. 2021; 4 (1)

  View details for DOI 10.1177/2515245920974622

  View details for Web of Science ID 000708948900001

• SAYCam: A Large, Longitudinal Audiovisual Dataset Recorded From the Infant's Perspective. Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science Sullivan, J., Mei, M., Perfors, A., Wojcik, E., Frank, M. C. 2021; 5: 20-29

  Abstract

  We introduce a new resource: the SAYCam corpus. Infants aged 6-32 months wore a head-mounted camera for approximately 2 hr per week, over the course of approximately two-and-a-half years. The result is a large, naturalistic, longitudinal dataset of infant- and child-perspective videos. Over 200,000 words of naturalistic speech have already been transcribed. Similarly, the dataset is searchable using a number of criteria (e.g., age of participant, location, setting, objects present). The resulting dataset will be of broad use to psychologists, linguists, and computer scientists.

  View details for DOI 10.1162/opmi_a_00039

  View details for PubMedID 34485795

• Measurement of Cognition for the National Children's Study. Frontiers in pediatrics Zelazo, P. D., Lourenco, S. F., Frank, M. C., Elison, J. T., Heaton, R. K., Wellman, H. M., Slotkin, J., Kharitonova, M., Reznick, J. S. 2021; 9: 603126

  Abstract

  The National Children's Study Cognitive Health Domain Team developed detailed plans for assessing cognition longitudinally from infancy to early adulthood. These plans identify high-priority aspects of cognition that can be measured efficiently and effectively, and we believe they can serve as a model for future large-scale longitudinal research. For infancy and toddlerhood, we proposed several paradigms that collectively allowed us to assess six broad cognitive constructs: (1) executive function skills, (2) episodic memory, (3) language, (4) processing speed, (5) spatial and numerical processing, and (6) social cognition. In some cases, different trial sequences within a paradigm allow for the simultaneous assessment of multiple cognitive skills (e.g., executive function skills and processing speed). We define each construct, summarize its significance for understanding developmental outcomes, discuss the feasibility of its assessment throughout development, and present our plan for measuring specific skills at different ages. Given the need for well-validated, direct behavioral measures of cognition that can be used in large-scale longitudinal studies, especially from birth to age 3 years, we also initiated three projects focused on the development of new measures.

  View details for DOI 10.3389/fped.2021.603126

  View details for PubMedID 34136435

• Building theories of consistency and variability in children's language development: A large-scale data approach. Advances in child development and behavior Tsui, A. S., Marchman, V. A., Frank, M. C. 2021; 61: 199-221

  Abstract

  Young children typically begin learning words during their first 2 years of life. On the other hand, they also vary substantially in their language learning. Similarities and differences in language learning call for a quantitative theory that can predict and explain which aspects of early language are consistent and which are variable. However, current developmental research practices limit our ability to build such quantitative theories because of small sample sizes and challenges related to reproducibility and replicability. In this chapter, we suggest that three approaches-meta-analysis, multi-site collaborations, and secondary data aggregation-can together address some of the limitations of current research in the developmental area. We review the strengths and limitations of each approach and end by discussing the potential impacts of combining these three approaches.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/bs.acdb.2021.04.003

  View details for PubMedID 34266565

• Building a Collaborative Psychological Science: Lessons Learned From ManyBabies 1 CANADIAN PSYCHOLOGY-PSYCHOLOGIE CANADIENNE Byers-Heinlein, K., Bergmann, C., Davies, C., Frank, M. C., Hamlin, J., Kline, M., Kominsky, J. F., Kosie, J. E., Lew-Williams, C., Liu, L., Mastroberardino, M., Singh, L., Waddell, C. G., Zettersten, M., Soderstrom, M. 2020; 61 (4): 349–63

  View details for DOI 10.1037/cap0000216

  View details for Web of Science ID 000592853200010

• Building a collaborative Psychological Science: Lessons learned from ManyBabies 1. Canadian psychology = Psychologie canadienne Byers-Heinlein, K., Bergmann, C., Davies, C., Frank, M. C., Hamlin, J. K., Kline, M., Kominsky, J. F., Kosie, J. E., Lew-Williams, C., Liu, L., Mastroberardino, M., Singh, L., Waddell, C. P., Zettersten, M., Soderstrom, M. 2020; 61 (4): 349-363

  Abstract

  The field of infancy research faces a difficult challenge: some questions require samples that are simply too large for any one lab to recruit and test. ManyBabies aims to address this problem by forming large-scale collaborations on key theoretical questions in developmental science, while promoting the uptake of Open Science practices. Here, we look back on the first project completed under the ManyBabies umbrella - ManyBabies 1 - which tested the development of infant-directed speech preference. Our goal is to share the lessons learned over the course of the project and to articulate our vision for the role of large-scale collaborations in the field. First, we consider the decisions made in scaling up experimental research for a collaboration involving 100+ researchers and 70+ labs. Next, we discuss successes and challenges over the course of the project, including: protocol design and implementation, data analysis, organizational structures and collaborative workflows, securing funding, and encouraging broad participation in the project. Finally, we discuss the benefits we see both in ongoing ManyBabies projects and in future large-scale collaborations in general, with a particular eye towards developing best practices and increasing growth and diversity in infancy research and psychological science in general. Throughout the paper, we include first-hand narrative experiences, in order to illustrate the perspectives of researchers playing different roles within the project. While this project focused on the unique challenges of infant research, many of the insights we gained can be applied to large-scale collaborations across the broader field of psychology.

  View details for DOI 10.1037/cap0000216

  View details for PubMedID 34219905

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8244655

• Children's interpretation of ambiguous pronouns based on prior discourse. Developmental science Bohn, M., Le, K. N., Peloquin, B., Koymen, B., Frank, M. C. 2020: e13049

  Abstract

  In conversation, individual utterances are almost always ambiguous, with this ambiguity resolved by context and discourse history (common ground). One important cue for disambiguation is the topic under discussion with a particular partner (e.g., "want to pick?" means something different in a conversation with a bluegrass musician vs.with a book club partner). Here, we investigated 2- to 5-year-old American English-speaking children's (N = 131) reliance on conversational topics with specific partners to interpret ambiguous or novel words. In a tablet-based game, children heard a speaker consistently refer to objects from a category without mentioning the category itself. In study 1, 3- and 4-year-olds interpreted the ambiguous pronoun "it" as referring to another member of the same category. In study 2, only 4-year-olds interpreted the pronoun as referring to the implied category when talking to the same speaker but not when talking to a new speaker. Thus, children's conception of what constitutes common ground in discourse develops substantially between age 2 and 5.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.13049

  View details for PubMedID 33064923

• Online Developmental Science to Foster Innovation, Access, and Impact. Trends in cognitive sciences Sheskin, M., Scott, K., Mills, C. M., Bergelson, E., Bonawitz, E., Spelke, E. S., Fei-Fei, L., Keil, F. C., Gweon, H., Tenenbaum, J. B., Jara-Ettinger, J., Adolph, K. E., Rhodes, M., Frank, M. C., Mehr, S. A., Schulz, L. 2020

  Abstract

  We propose that developmental cognitive science should invest in an online CRADLE, a Collaboration for Reproducible and Distributed Large-Scale Experiments that crowdsources data from families participating on the internet. Here, we discuss how the field can work together to further expand and unify current prototypes for the benefit of researchers, science, and society.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2020.06.004

  View details for PubMedID 32624386

• The Growth of Children's Semantic and Phonological Networks: Insight From 10 Languages. Cognitive science Fourtassi, A., Bian, Y., Frank, M. C. 2020; 44 (7): e12847

  Abstract

  Children tend to produce words earlier when they are connected to a variety of other words along the phonological and semantic dimensions. Though these semantic and phonological connectivity effects have been extensively documented, little is known about their underlying developmental mechanism. One possibility is that learning is driven by lexical network growth where highly connected words in the child's early lexicon enable learning of similar words. Another possibility is that learning is driven by highly connected words in the external learning environment, instead of highly connected words in the early internal lexicon. The present study tests both scenarios systematically in both the phonological and semantic domains across 10 languages. We show that phonological and semantic connectivity in the learning environment drives growth in both production- and comprehension-based vocabularies, even controlling for word frequency and length. This pattern of findings suggests a word learning process where children harness their statistical learning abilities to detect and learn highly connected words in the learning environment.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.12847

  View details for PubMedID 32621305

• Children Flexibly Seek Visual Information to Support Signed and Spoken Language Comprehension JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-GENERAL MacDonald, K., Marchman, V. A., Fernald, A., Frank, M. C. 2020; 149 (6): 1078–96

  Abstract

  During grounded language comprehension, listeners must link the incoming linguistic signal to the visual world despite uncertainty in the input. Information gathered through visual fixations can facilitate understanding. But do listeners flexibly seek supportive visual information? Here, we propose that even young children can adapt their gaze and actively gather information for the goal of language comprehension. We present 2 studies of eye movements during real-time language processing, where the value of fixating on a social partner varies across different contexts. First, compared with children learning spoken English (n = 80), young American Sign Language (ASL) learners (n = 30) delayed gaze shifts away from a language source and produced a higher proportion of language-consistent eye movements. This result provides evidence that ASL learners adapt their gaze to effectively divide attention between language and referents, which both compete for processing via the visual channel. Second, English-speaking preschoolers (n = 39) and adults (n = 31) fixated longer on a speaker's face while processing language in a noisy auditory environment. Critically, like the ASL learners in Experiment 1, this delay resulted in gathering more visual information and a higher proportion of language-consistent gaze shifts. Taken together, these studies suggest that young listeners can adapt their gaze to seek visual information from social partners to support real-time language comprehension. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/xge0000702

  View details for Web of Science ID 000531517700005

  View details for PubMedID 31750713

• The Early Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire: Measuring Intuitive Theories of Parenting and Child Development COLLABRA-PSYCHOLOGY Hembacher, E., Frank, M. C. 2020; 6 (1)

  View details for DOI 10.1525/collabra.190

  View details for Web of Science ID 000572399600001

• Addressing Publication Bias in Meta-Analysis Empirical Findings From Community-Augmented Meta-Analyses of Infant Language Development ZEITSCHRIFT FUR PSYCHOLOGIE-JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY Tsuji, S., Cristia, A., Frank, M. C., Bergmann, C. 2020; 228 (1): 50–61

  View details for DOI 10.1027/2151-2604/a000393

  View details for Web of Science ID 000523186700007

• Advancing Transparency and Openness in Child Development Research: Opportunities. Child development perspectives Gennetian, L. A., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Frank, M. C. 2020; 14 (1): 3-8

  Abstract

  Transparency and openness are basic scientific values. They lie at the heart of practices that accelerate discovery and broaden access to scientific knowledge. In this article, we argue that these values are essential to ensure the enduring influence of research on child development. They are also critical for the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) to accomplish its mission to benefit diverse global stakeholders and constituents. A companion article in this issue (Gilmore, Cole, Verma, van Aken, Worthman) discusses the challenges in realizing SRCD's vision for a science of child development that is open, transparent, robust, impactful, and conducted with the highest integrity. Here, we discuss opportunities for the society to set standards that ensure the full integration of transparency and openness into developmental science.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdep.12356

  View details for PubMedID 33981356

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8112604

• Advancing Transparency and Openness in Child Development Research: Opportunities CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES Gennetian, L. A., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Frank, M. C. 2020; 14 (1): 3–8

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdep.12356

  View details for Web of Science ID 000515222900001

• What counts as an exemplar model, anyway? A commentary on Ambridge (2020) FIRST LANGUAGE Mahowald, K., Kachergis, G., Frank, M. C. 2020

  View details for DOI 10.1177/0142723720905920

  View details for Web of Science ID 000517404700001

• The Interactions of Rational, Pragmatic Agents Lead to Efficient Language Structure and Use. Topics in cognitive science Peloquin, B. N., Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2020; 12 (1): 433–45

  Abstract

  Despite their diversity, languages around the world share a consistent set of properties and distributional regularities. For example, the distribution of word frequencies, the distribution of syntactic dependency lengths, and the presence of ambiguity are all remarkably consistent across languages. We discuss a framework for studying how these system-level properties emerge from local, in-the-moment interactions of rational, pragmatic speakers and listeners. To do so, we derive a novel objective function for measuring the communicative efficiency of linguistic systems in terms of the interactions of speakers and listeners. We examine the behavior of this objective in a series of simulations focusing on the communicative function of ambiguity in language. These simulations suggest that rational pragmatic agents will produce communicatively efficient systems and that interactions between such agents provide a framework for examining efficient properties of language structure and use more broadly.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/tops.12489

  View details for PubMedID 32023005

• Children's Social Information Seeking is Sensitive to Referential Ambiguity. Child development Hembacher, E. n., deMayo, B. n., Frank, M. C. 2020

  Abstract

  We examined children's spontaneous information seeking in response to referential ambiguity. Children ages 2-5 (n = 160) identified the referents of familiar and novel labels. We manipulated ambiguity by changing the number of objects present and their familiarity (Experiments 1 and 2), and the availability of referential gaze (Experiment 2). In both experiments, children looked to the face of the experimenter more often while responding, specifically when the referent was ambiguous. In Experiment 2, 3- to 4-year olds also demonstrated sensitivity to graded referential evidence. These results suggest that social information seeking is an active learning behavior that could contribute to language acquisition in early childhood.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdev.13427

  View details for PubMedID 32767767

• How optimal is word recognition under multimodal uncertainty? Cognition Fourtassi, A. n., Frank, M. C. 2020; 199: 104092

  Abstract

  Identifying a spoken word in a referential context requires both the ability to integrate multimodal input and the ability to reason under uncertainty. How do these tasks interact with one another? We study how adults identify novel words under joint uncertainty in the auditory and visual modalities, and we propose an ideal observer model of how cues in these modalities are combined optimally. Model predictions are tested in four experiments where recognition is made under various sources of uncertainty. We found that participants use both auditory and visual cues to recognize novel words. When the signal is not distorted with environmental noise, participants weight the auditory and visual cues optimally, that is, according to the relative reliability of each modality. In contrast, when one modality has noise added to it, human perceivers systematically prefer the unperturbed modality to a greater extent than the optimal model does. This work extends the literature on perceptual cue combination to the case of word recognition in a referential context. In addition, this context offers a link to the study of multimodal information in word meaning learning.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104092

  View details for PubMedID 32135386

• The role of developmental change and linguistic experience in the mutual exclusivity effect. Cognition Lewis, M. n., Cristiano, V. n., Lake, B. M., Kwan, T. n., Frank, M. C. 2020; 198: 104191

  Abstract

  Given a novel word and a familiar and a novel referent, children have a bias to assume the novel word refers to the novel referent. This bias - often referred to as "Mutual Exclusivity" (ME) - is thought to be a potentially powerful route through which children might learn new word meanings, and, consequently, has been the focus of a large amount of empirical study and theorizing. Here, we focus on two aspects of the bias that have received relatively little attention in the literature: Development and experience. A successful theory of ME will need to provide an account for why the strength of the effect changes with the age of the child. We provide a quantitative description of the change in the strength of the bias across development, and investigate the role that linguistic experience plays in this developmental change. We first summarize the current body of empirical findings via a meta-analysis, and then present two experiments that examine the relationship between a child's amount of linguistic experience and the strength of the ME bias. We conclude that the strength of the bias varies dramatically across development and that linguistic experience is likely one causal factor contributing to this change. In the General Discussion, we describe how existing theories of ME can account for our findings, and highlight the value of computational modeling for future theorizing.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104191

  View details for PubMedID 32143015

• Characterizing the Dynamics of Learning in Repeated Reference Games. Cognitive science Hawkins, R. D., Frank, M. C., Goodman, N. D. 2020; 44 (6): e12845

  Abstract

  The language we use over the course of conversation changes as we establish common ground and learn what our partner finds meaningful. Here we draw upon recent advances in natural language processing to provide a finer-grained characterization of the dynamics of this learning process. We release an open corpus (>15,000 utterances) of extended dyadic interactions in a classic repeated reference game task where pairs of participants had to coordinate on how to refer to initially difficult-to-describe tangram stimuli. We find that different pairs discover a wide variety of idiosyncratic but efficient and stable solutions to the problem of reference. Furthermore, these conventions are shaped by the communicative context: words that are more discriminative in the initial context (i.e., that are used for one target more than others) are more likely to persist through the final repetition. Finally, we find systematic structure in how a speaker's referring expressions become more efficient over time: Syntactic units drop out in clusters following positive feedback from the listener, eventually leaving short labels containing open-class parts of speech. These findings provide a higher resolution look at the quantitative dynamics of ad hoc convention formation and support further development of computational models of learning in communication.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.12845

  View details for PubMedID 32496603

• Continuous developmental change explains discontinuities in word learning. Developmental science Fourtassi, A. n., Regan, S. n., Frank, M. C. 2020: e13018

  Abstract

  Cognitive development is often characterized in terms of discontinuities, but these discontinuities can sometimes be apparent rather than actual and can arise from continuous developmental change. To explore this idea, we use as a case study the finding by Stager and Werker (1997) that children's early ability to distinguish similar sounds does not automatically translate into word learning skills. Early explanations proposed that children may not be able to encode subtle phonetic contrasts when learning novel word meanings, thus suggesting a discontinuous/stage-like pattern of development. However, later work has revealed (e.g., through using more precise testing methods) that children do encode such contrasts, thus favoring a continuous pattern of development. Here we propose a probabilistic model that represents word knowledge in a graded fashion and characterizes developmental change as improvement in the precision of this graded knowledge. Our model explained previous findings in the literature and provided a new prediction - the referents' visual similarity modulates word learning accuracy. The models' predictions were corroborated by human data collected from both preschool children and adults. The broader impact of this work is to show that computational models, such as ours, can help us explore the extent to which episodes of cognitive development that are typically thought of as discontinuities may emerge from simpler, continuous mechanisms.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.13018

  View details for PubMedID 32654329

• N-Best Evaluation for Academic Hiring and Promotion. Trends in cognitive sciences Frank, M. C. 2019

  Abstract

  Current evaluations for scientists create perverse incentives. To avoid this issue, I propose an N-best policy: Hiring and promotion committees should solicit a few research products as the primary locus of evaluation. This policy aligns evaluation with the goal of selecting scientists who produce high-quality work.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2019.09.010

  View details for PubMedID 31640917

• Towards a more robust and replicable science of infant development. Infant behavior & development Frank, M. C. 2019; 57: 101349

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101349

  View details for PubMedID 31434046

• childes-db: A flexible and reproducible interface to the child language data exchange system BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS Sanchez, A., Meylan, S. C., Braginsky, M., MacDonald, K. E., Yurovsky, D., Frank, M. C. 2019; 51 (4): 1928–41

  View details for DOI 10.3758/s13428-018-1176-7

  View details for Web of Science ID 000481874200029

• childes-db: A flexible and reproducible interface to the child language data exchange system. Behavior research methods Sanchez, A., Meylan, S. C., Braginsky, M., MacDonald, K. E., Yurovsky, D., Frank, M. C. 2019

  Abstract

  The Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) has played a critical role in research on child language development, particularly in characterizing the early language learning environment. Access to these data can be both complex for novices and difficult to automate for advanced users, however. To address these issues, we introduce childes-db, a database-formatted mirror of CHILDES that improves data accessibility and usability by offering novel interfaces, including browsable web applications and an R application programming interface (API). Along with versioned infrastructure that facilitates reproducibility of past analyses, these interfaces lower barriers to analyzing naturalistic parent-child language, allowing for a wider range of researchers in language and cognitive development to easily leverage CHILDES in their work.

  View details for PubMedID 30623390

• The role of salience in young children's processing of ad hoc implicatures. Journal of experimental child psychology Yoon, E. J., Frank, M. C. 2019; 186: 99–116

  Abstract

  Language comprehension often requires making implicatures. For example, inferring that "I ate some of the cookies" implicates that the speaker ate some but not all (scalar implicatures), and "I ate the chocolate chip cookies" where there are both chocolate chip cookies and raisin cookies in the context implicates that the speaker ate the chocolate chip cookies but not both the chocolate chip and raisin cookies (ad hoc implicatures). Children's ability to make scalar implicatures develops at around 5 years of age, with ad hoc implicatures emerging somewhat earlier. In the current work, using a time-sensitive tablet paradigm, we examined developmental gains in children's ad hoc implicature processing and found evidence for successful pragmatic inferences by children as young as 3 years in a supportive context and substantial developmental gains in inference computation from 2 to 5 years. We also tested whether one cause of younger children's (2-year-olds) consistent failure to make pragmatic inferences is their difficulty in inhibiting an alternative interpretation that is more salient than the target meaning (the salience hypothesis). Our findings support this hypothesis; younger children's failures with pragmatic inferences were related to effects of the salience mismatch between possible interpretations.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.04.008

  View details for PubMedID 31220753

• Still Suspicious: The Suspicious-Coincidence Effect Revisited PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Lewis, M. L., Frank, M. C. 2018; 29 (12): 2039-2047

  View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797618794931

  View details for Web of Science ID 000453540200013

• Promoting Replicability in Developmental Research Through Meta-analyses: Insights From Language Acquisition Research CHILD DEVELOPMENT Bergmann, C., Tsuji, S., Piccinini, P. E., Lewis, M. L., Braginsky, M., Frank, M. C., Cristia, A. 2018; 89 (6): 1996–2009

  Abstract

  Previous work suggests that key factors for replicability, a necessary feature for theory building, include statistical power and appropriate research planning. These factors are examined by analyzing a collection of 12 standardized meta-analyses on language development between birth and 5 years. With a median effect size of Cohen's d = .45 and typical sample size of 18 participants, most research is underpowered (range = 6%-99%; median = 44%); and calculating power based on seminal publications is not a suitable strategy. Method choice can be improved, as shown in analyses on exclusion rates and effect size as a function of method. The article ends with a discussion on how to increase replicability in both language acquisition studies specifically and developmental research more generally.

  View details for PubMedID 29736962

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC6282795

• The Trouble With Quantifiers: Exploring Children's Deficits in Scalar Implicature CHILD DEVELOPMENT Horowitz, A. C., Schneider, R. M., Frank, M. C. 2018; 89 (6): E572-E593

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdev.13014

  View details for Web of Science ID 000452463400009

• Still Suspicious: The Suspicious-Coincidence Effect Revisited. Psychological science Lewis, M. L., Frank, M. C. 2018: 956797618794931

  Abstract

  Imagine hearing someone call a particular dalmatian a "dax." The meaning of the novel noun dax is ambiguous between the subordinate meaning (dalmatian) and the basic-level meaning (dog). Yet both children and adults successfully learn noun meanings at the intended level of abstraction from similar evidence. Xu and Tenenbaum (2007a) provided an explanation for this apparent puzzle: Learners assume that examples are sampled from the true underlying category (strong sampling), making cases in which there are more observed exemplars more consistent with a subordinate meaning than cases in which there are fewer exemplars (the suspicious-coincidence effect). Authors of more recent work (Spencer, Perone, Smith, & Samuelson, 2011) have questioned the relevance of this finding, however, arguing that the effect occurs only when the examples are presented to the learner simultaneously. Across a series of 12 experiments ( N = 600), we systematically manipulated several experimental parameters that varied across previous studies, and we successfully replicated the findings of both sets of authors. Taken together, our data suggest that the suspicious-coincidence effect in fact is robust to presentation timing of examples but is sensitive to another factor that varied in the Spencer et al. (2011) experiments, namely, trial order. Our work highlights the influence of pragmatics on behavior in experimental tasks.

  View details for PubMedID 30321091

• Data availability, reusability, and analytic reproducibility: evaluating the impact of a mandatory open data policy at the journal Cognition. Royal Society open science Hardwicke, T. E., Mathur, M. B., MacDonald, K., Nilsonne, G., Banks, G. C., Kidwell, M. C., Hofelich Mohr, A., Clayton, E., Yoon, E. J., Henry Tessler, M., Lenne, R. L., Altman, S., Long, B., Frank, M. C. 2018; 5 (8): 180448

  Abstract

  Access to data is a critical feature of an efficient, progressive and ultimately self-correcting scientific ecosystem. But the extent to which in-principle benefits of data sharing are realized in practice is unclear. Crucially, it is largely unknown whether published findings can be reproduced by repeating reported analyses upon shared data ('analytic reproducibility'). To investigate this, we conducted an observational evaluation of a mandatory open data policy introduced at the journal Cognition. Interrupted time-series analyses indicated a substantial post-policy increase in data available statements (104/417, 25% pre-policy to 136/174, 78% post-policy), although not all data appeared reusable (23/104, 22% pre-policy to 85/136, 62%, post-policy). For 35 of the articles determined to have reusable data, we attempted to reproduce 1324 target values. Ultimately, 64 values could not be reproduced within a 10% margin of error. For 22 articles all target values were reproduced, but 11 of these required author assistance. For 13 articles at least one value could not be reproduced despite author assistance. Importantly, there were no clear indications that original conclusions were seriously impacted. Mandatory open data policies can increase the frequency and quality of data sharing. However, suboptimal data curation, unclear analysis specification and reporting errors can impede analytic reproducibility, undermining the utility of data sharing and the credibility of scientific findings.

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rsos.180448

  View details for PubMedID 30225032

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC6124055

• With Great Data Comes Great (Theoretical) Opportunity TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES Frank, M. C. 2018; 22 (8): 669-671

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2018.05.011

  View details for Web of Science ID 000438953100003

• A Practical Guide for Transparency in Psychological Science COLLABRA-PSYCHOLOGY Klein, O., Hardwicket, T. E., Aust, F., Breuer, J., Danielsson, H., Mohr, A., IJzerman, H., Nilsonne, G., Vanpaemel, W., Frank, M. C. 2018; 4 (1)

  View details for DOI 10.1525/collabra.158

  View details for Web of Science ID 000463246200002

• With Great Data Comes Great (Theoretical) Opportunity. Trends in cognitive sciences Frank, M. C. 2018

  Abstract

  Is there a 'critical period' for language? Using a viral online grammar test, Hartshorne, Tenenbaum, and Pinker (2018) collected a new massive dataset on the relationship between age and language learning. Their data highlight both the importance - and the challenges - of creating quantitative theories linking 'big data' to cognitive models.

  View details for PubMedID 29903691

• The Role of Design and Training in Artifact Expertise: The Case of the Abacus and Visual Attention COGNITIVE SCIENCE Srinivasan, M., Wagner, K., Frank, M. C., Barner, D. 2018; 42: 757–82

  Abstract

  Previous accounts of how people develop expertise have focused on how deliberate practice transforms the cognitive and perceptual representations and processes that give rise to expertise. However, the likelihood of developing expertise with a particular tool may also depend on the degree to which that tool fits pre-existing perceptual and cognitive abilities. The present studies explored whether the abacus-a descendent of the first human computing devices-may have evolved to exploit general biases in human visual attention, or whether developing expertise with the abacus requires learning special strategies for allocating visual attention to the abacus. To address this question, we administered a series of visual search tasks to abacus experts and subjects who had little to no abacus experience, in which search targets and distractors were overlaid atop abacus "beads." Across three studies, we found that both experts and naïve subjects were faster to detect targets in semantically relevant components of the abacus, suggesting that abacus training is not required to exhibit attentional biases toward these components of the abacus. This finding suggests that the attentional biases that scaffold numerical processing of the abacus may emerge from general properties of visual attention that are exploited by the design of the abacus itself.

  View details for PubMedID 29687463

• The Role of Gesture in Supporting Mental Representations: The Case of Mental Abacus Arithmetic COGNITIVE SCIENCE Brooks, N. B., Barner, D., Frank, M., Goldin-Meadow, S. 2018; 42 (2): 554–75

  Abstract

  People frequently gesture when problem-solving, particularly on tasks that require spatial transformation. Gesture often facilitates task performance by interacting with internal mental representations, but how this process works is not well understood. We investigated this question by exploring the case of mental abacus (MA), a technique in which users not only imagine moving beads on an abacus to compute sums, but also produce movements in gestures that accompany the calculations. Because the content of MA is transparent and readily manipulated, the task offers a unique window onto how gestures interface with mental representations. We find that the size and number of MA gestures reflect the length and difficulty of math problems. Also, by selectively interfering with aspects of gesture, we find that participants perform significantly worse on MA under motor interference, but that perceptual feedback is not critical for success on the task. We conclude that premotor processes involved in the planning of gestures are critical to mental representation in MA.

  View details for PubMedID 28892176

• Pre-linguistic segmentation of speech into syllable-like units COGNITION Rasanen, O., Doyle, G., Frank, M. C. 2018; 171: 130–50

  Abstract

  Syllables are often considered to be central to infant and adult speech perception. Many theories and behavioral studies on early language acquisition are also based on syllable-level representations of spoken language. There is little clarity, however, on what sort of pre-linguistic "syllable" would actually be accessible to an infant with no phonological or lexical knowledge. Anchored by the notion that syllables are organized around particularly sonorous (audible) speech sounds, the present study investigates the feasibility of speech segmentation into syllable-like chunks without any a priori linguistic knowledge. We first operationalize sonority as a measurable property of the acoustic input, and then use sonority variation across time, or speech rhythm, as the basis for segmentation. The entire process from acoustic input to chunks of syllable-like acoustic segments is implemented as a computational model inspired by the oscillatory entrainment of the brain to speech rhythm. We analyze the output of the segmentation process in three different languages, showing that the sonority fluctuation in speech is highly informative of syllable and word boundaries in all three cases without any language-specific tuning of the model. These findings support the widely held assumption that syllable-like structure is accessible to infants even when they are only beginning to learn the properties of their native language.

  View details for PubMedID 29156241

• Early Understanding of Pragmatic Principles in Children's Judgments of Negative Sentences LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Nordmeyera, A. E., Frank, M. C. 2018; 14 (4): 262–78

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15475441.2018.1463850

  View details for Web of Science ID 000439175200002

• A Bayesian decision-making framework for replication BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES Hardwicke, T. E., Tessler, M., Peloquin, B. N., Frank, M. C. 2018; 41

  View details for DOI 10.1017/S0140525X18000675

  View details for Web of Science ID 000458790700047

• A Bayesian decision-making framework for replication. The Behavioral and brain sciences Hardwicke, T. E., Tessler, M. H., Peloquin, B. N., Frank, M. C. 2018; 41: e132

  Abstract

  Replication is the cornerstone of science - but when and why? Not all studies need replication, especially when resources are limited. We propose that a decision-making framework based on Bayesian philosophy of science provides a basis for choosing which studies to replicate.

  View details for DOI 10.1017/S0140525X18000675

  View details for PubMedID 31064517

• The Trouble With Quantifiers: Exploring Children's Deficits in Scalar Implicature. Child development Horowitz, A. C., Schneider, R. M., Frank, M. C. 2017

  Abstract

  Adults routinely use the context of utterances to infer a meaning beyond the literal semantics of their words (e.g., inferring from "She ate some of the cookies" that she ate some, but not all). Contrasting children's (N=209) comprehension of scalar implicatures using quantifiers with contextually derived ad hoc implicatures revealed that 4- to 5-year-olds reliably computed ad hoc, but not scalar, implicatures (Experiment 1). Unexpectedly, performance with "some" and "none" was correlated (Experiments 1 and 2). An individual differences study revealed a correlation between quantifier knowledge and implicature success (Experiment 3); a control study ruled out other factors (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that some failures with scalar implicatures may be rooted in a lack of semantic knowledge rather than general pragmatic or processing demands.

  View details for PubMedID 29285759

• Social cues modulate the representations underlying cross situational learning COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY MacDonald, K., Yurovsky, D., Frank, M. C. 2017; 94: 67-84

  Abstract

  Because children hear language in environments that contain many things to talk about, learning the meaning of even the simplest word requires making inferences under uncertainty. A cross-situational statistical learner can aggregate across naming events to form stable word-referent mappings, but this approach neglects an important source of information that can reduce referential uncertainty: social cues from speakers (e.g., eye gaze). In four large-scale experiments with adults, we tested the effects of varying referential uncertainty in cross-situational word learning using social cues. Social cues shifted learners away from tracking multiple hypotheses and towards storing only a single hypothesis (Experiments 1 and 2). In addition, learners were sensitive to graded changes in the strength of a social cue, and when it became less reliable, they were more likely to store multiple hypotheses (Experiment 3). Finally, learners stored fewer word-referent mappings in the presence of a social cue even when given the opportunity to visually inspect the objects for the same amount of time (Experiment 4). Taken together, our data suggest that the representations underlying cross-situational word learning of concrete object labels are quite flexible: In conditions of greater uncertainty, learners store a broader range of information.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2017.02.003

  View details for Web of Science ID 000400232400004

  View details for PubMedID 28288392

• Semantic Coherence Facilitates Distributional Learning COGNITIVE SCIENCE Ouyang, L., Boroditsky, L., Frank, M. C. 2017; 41: 855-884

  Abstract

  Computational models have shown that purely statistical knowledge about words' linguistic contexts is sufficient to learn many properties of words, including syntactic and semantic category. For example, models can infer that "postman" and "mailman" are semantically similar because they have quantitatively similar patterns of association with other words (e.g., they both tend to occur with words like "deliver," "truck," "package"). In contrast to these computational results, artificial language learning experiments suggest that distributional statistics alone do not facilitate learning of linguistic categories. However, experiments in this paradigm expose participants to entirely novel words, whereas real language learners encounter input that contains some known words that are semantically organized. In three experiments, we show that (a) the presence of familiar semantic reference points facilitates distributional learning and (b) this effect crucially depends both on the presence of known words and the adherence of these known words to some semantic organization.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.12360

  View details for Web of Science ID 000400359400008

• Semantic Coherence Facilitates Distributional Learning. Cognitive science Ouyang, L., Boroditsky, L., Frank, M. C. 2017; 41 Suppl 4: 855-884

  Abstract

  Computational models have shown that purely statistical knowledge about words' linguistic contexts is sufficient to learn many properties of words, including syntactic and semantic category. For example, models can infer that "postman" and "mailman" are semantically similar because they have quantitatively similar patterns of association with other words (e.g., they both tend to occur with words like "deliver," "truck," "package"). In contrast to these computational results, artificial language learning experiments suggest that distributional statistics alone do not facilitate learning of linguistic categories. However, experiments in this paradigm expose participants to entirely novel words, whereas real language learners encounter input that contains some known words that are semantically organized. In three experiments, we show that (a) the presence of familiar semantic reference points facilitates distributional learning and (b) this effect crucially depends both on the presence of known words and the adherence of these known words to some semantic organization.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.12360

  View details for PubMedID 26988338

• Beyond naive cue combination: salience and social cues in early word learning DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Yurovsky, D., Frank, M. C. 2017; 20 (2)

  Abstract

  Children learn their earliest words through social interaction, but it is unknown how much they rely on social information. Some theories argue that word learning is fundamentally social from its outset, with even the youngest infants understanding intentions and using them to infer a social partner's target of reference. In contrast, other theories argue that early word learning is largely a perceptual process in which young children map words onto salient objects. One way of unifying these accounts is to model word learning as weighted cue combination, in which children attend to many potential cues to reference, but only gradually learn the correct weight to assign each cue. We tested four predictions of this kind of naïve cue combination account, using an eye-tracking paradigm that combines social word teaching and two-alternative forced-choice testing. None of the predictions were supported. We thus propose an alternative unifying account: children are sensitive to social information early, but their ability to gather and deploy this information is constrained by domain-general cognitive processes. Developmental changes in children's use of social cues emerge not from learning the predictive power of social cues, but from the gradual development of attention, memory, and speed of information processing.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.12349

  View details for Web of Science ID 000395066500001

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4870162

• Beyond naïve cue combination: salience and social cues in early word learning. Developmental science Yurovsky, D., Frank, M. C. 2017; 20 (2)

  Abstract

  Children learn their earliest words through social interaction, but it is unknown how much they rely on social information. Some theories argue that word learning is fundamentally social from its outset, with even the youngest infants understanding intentions and using them to infer a social partner's target of reference. In contrast, other theories argue that early word learning is largely a perceptual process in which young children map words onto salient objects. One way of unifying these accounts is to model word learning as weighted cue combination, in which children attend to many potential cues to reference, but only gradually learn the correct weight to assign each cue. We tested four predictions of this kind of naïve cue combination account, using an eye-tracking paradigm that combines social word teaching and two-alternative forced-choice testing. None of the predictions were supported. We thus propose an alternative unifying account: children are sensitive to social information early, but their ability to gather and deploy this information is constrained by domain-general cognitive processes. Developmental changes in children's use of social cues emerge not from learning the predictive power of social cues, but from the gradual development of attention, memory, and speed of information processing.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.12349

  View details for PubMedID 26575408

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4870162

• The development of children's ability to track and predict turn structure in conversation JOURNAL OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE Casillas, M., Frank, M. C. 2017; 92: 234-253

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jml.2016.06.013

  View details for Web of Science ID 000389106100016

• Adaptive Engagement of Cognitive Control in Context-Dependent Decision Making CEREBRAL CORTEX Waskom, M. L., Frank, M. C., Wagner, A. D. 2017; 27 (2): 1270-1284

  Abstract

  Many decisions require a context-dependent mapping from sensory evidence to action. The capacity for flexible information processing of this sort is thought to depend on a cognitive control system in frontoparietal cortex, but the costs and limitations of control entail that its engagement should be minimized. Here, we show that humans reduce demands on control by exploiting statistical structure in their environment. Using a context-dependent perceptual discrimination task and model-based analyses of behavioral and neuroimaging data, we found that predictions about task context facilitated decision making and that a quantitative measure of context prediction error accounted for graded engagement of the frontoparietal control network. Within this network, multivariate analyses further showed that context prediction error enhanced the representation of task context. These results indicate that decision making is adaptively tuned by experience to minimize costs while maintaining flexibility.

  View details for DOI 10.1093/cercor/bhv333

  View details for Web of Science ID 000397257600030

• The Emergence of an Abstract Grammatical Category in Children's Early Speech PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Meylan, S. C., Frank, M. C., Roy, B. C., Levy, R. 2017; 28 (2): 181-192

  Abstract

  How do children begin to use language to say things they have never heard before? The origins of linguistic productivity have been a subject of heated debate: Whereas generativist accounts posit that children's early language reflects the presence of syntactic abstractions, constructivist approaches instead emphasize gradual generalization derived from frequently heard forms. In the present research, we developed a Bayesian statistical model that measures the degree of abstraction implicit in children's early use of the determiners "a" and "the." Our work revealed that many previously used corpora are too small to allow researchers to judge between these theoretical positions. However, several data sets, including the Speechome corpus-a new ultra-dense data set for one child-showed evidence of low initial levels of productivity and higher levels later in development. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that children lack rich grammatical knowledge at the outset of language learning but rapidly begin to generalize on the basis of structural regularities in their input.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797616677753

  View details for Web of Science ID 000396813300003

  View details for PubMedID 28074675

• Preschoolers Flexibly Adapt to Linguistic Input in a Noisy Channel PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Yurovsky, D., Case, S., Frank, M. C. 2017; 28 (1): 132-140

  Abstract

  Because linguistic communication is inherently noisy and uncertain, adult language comprehenders integrate bottom-up cues from speech perception with top-down expectations about what speakers are likely to say. Further, in line with the predictions of ideal-observer models, past results have shown that adult comprehenders flexibly adapt how much they rely on these two kinds of cues in proportion to their changing reliability. Do children also show evidence of flexible, expectation-based language comprehension? We presented preschoolers with ambiguous utterances that could be interpreted in two different ways, depending on whether the children privileged perceptual input or top-down expectations. Across three experiments, we manipulated the reliability of both their perceptual input and their expectations about the speaker's intended meaning. As predicted by noisy-channel models of speech processing, results showed that 4- and 5-year-old-but perhaps not younger-children flexibly adjusted their interpretations as cues changed in reliability.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797616668557

  View details for Web of Science ID 000396797900010

  View details for PubMedID 28078978

• Alignment at Work: Using Language to Distinguish the Internalization and Self-Regulation Components of Cultural Fit in Organizations Doyle, G., Goldberg, A., Srivastava, S. B., Frank, M. C., Barzilay, R., Kan, M. Y. ASSOC COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS-ACL. 2017: 603-612

  View details for DOI 10.18653/v1/P17-1056

  View details for Web of Science ID 000493984800056

• MetaLab: A repository for meta-analyses on language development, and more Tsuji, S., Bergmann, C., Lewis, M., Braginsky, M., Piccinini, P., Frank, M. C., Cristia, A., Int Speech Commun Assoc ISCA-INT SPEECH COMMUNICATION ASSOC. 2017: 2038–39

  View details for Web of Science ID 000457505000422

• Avoiding frostbite: It helps to learn from others BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES Tessler, M., Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2017; 40: e279

  Abstract

  Machines that learn and think like people must be able to learn from others. Social learning speeds up the learning process and - in combination with language - is a gateway to abstract and unobservable information. Social learning also facilitates the accumulation of knowledge across generations, helping people and artificial intelligences learn things that no individual could learn in a lifetime.

  View details for PubMedID 29342698

• Embedded Implicatures as Pragmatic Inferences under Compositional Lexical Uncertainty JOURNAL OF SEMANTICS Potts, C., Lassiter, D., Levy, R., Frank, M. C. 2016; 33 (4): 755-802

  View details for DOI 10.1093/jos/ffv012

  View details for Web of Science ID 000393183900004

• Understanding the effect of social context on learning: A replication of Xu and Tenenbaum (2007b). Journal of experimental psychology. General Lewis, M. L., Frank, M. C. 2016; 145 (9): e72-80

  Abstract

  Does the source of a piece of data-the process by which it is sampled-influence the inferences that we draw from it? Xu and Tenenbaum (2007b) reported a large effect of sampling process on learning: When a category exemplar was presented by a knowledgeable teacher, learners generalized more narrowly than when it was presented from an unknowledgeable source. In 5 experiments, 4 online and 1 in-person, we attempted to replicate this result. Aggregating across our studies, we replicated the original finding of sensitivity to the sampling process, but with a smaller effect size than the original. We discuss these findings in the context of concerns about replicability more generally, as well as the practical relevance of sampling effects in psychological experiments. (PsycINFO Database Record

  View details for DOI 10.1037/xge0000203

  View details for PubMedID 27560856

• The length of words reflects their conceptual complexity COGNITION Lewis, M. L., Frank, M. C. 2016; 153: 182-195

  Abstract

  Are the forms of words systematically related to their meaning? The arbitrariness of the sign has long been a foundational part of our understanding of human language. Theories of communication predict a relationship between length and meaning, however: Longer descriptions should be more conceptually complex. Here we show that both the lexicons of human languages and individual speakers encode the relationship between linguistic and conceptual complexity. Experimentally, participants mapped longer words to more complex objects in comprehension and production tasks and across a range of stimuli. Explicit judgments of conceptual complexity were also highly correlated with implicit measures of study time in a memory task, suggesting that complexity is directly related to basic cognitive processes. Observationally, judgments of conceptual complexity for a sample of real words correlate highly with their length across 80 languages, even controlling for frequency, familiarity, imageability, and concreteness. While word lengths are systematically related to usage-both frequency and contextual predictability-our results reveal a systematic relationship with meaning as well. They point to a general regularity in the design of lexicons and suggest that pragmatic pressures may influence the structure of the lexicon.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.04.003

  View details for Web of Science ID 000379558700018

  View details for PubMedID 27232162

• Learning Mathematics in a Visuospatial Format: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Mental Abacus Instruction CHILD DEVELOPMENT Barner, D., Alvarez, G., Sullivan, J., Brooks, N., Srinivasan, M., Frank, M. C. 2016; 87 (4): 1146-1158

  Abstract

  Mental abacus (MA) is a technique of performing fast, accurate arithmetic using a mental image of an abacus; experts exhibit astonishing calculation abilities. Over 3 years, 204 elementary school students (age range at outset: 5-7 years old) participated in a randomized, controlled trial to test whether MA expertise (a) can be acquired in standard classroom settings, (b) improves students' mathematical abilities (beyond standard math curricula), and (c) is related to changes in basic cognitive capacities like working memory. MA students outperformed controls on arithmetic tasks, suggesting that MA expertise can be achieved by children in standard classrooms. MA training did not alter basic cognitive abilities; instead, differences in spatial working memory at the beginning of the study mediated MA learning.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdev.12515

  View details for Web of Science ID 000379911900016

  View details for PubMedID 27062391

• Children's Pragmatic Inferences as a Route for Learning About the World CHILD DEVELOPMENT Horowitz, A. C., Frank, M. C. 2016; 87 (3): 807-819

  Abstract

  This study investigated whether children can infer category properties based on how a speaker describes an individual (e.g., saying something is a "small zib" implies that zibs are generally bigger than this one). Three- to 5-year-olds (N = 264) from a university preschool and a children's museum were tested on their ability to make this sort of contrast inference. Children made some inferences from adjective choice alone (Experiment 1); performance increased as more cues to contrast were added (Experiments 2 and 3). Control studies show that these findings are not due to the particular properties used or the structure of these tasks (Experiments 4 and 5). These findings suggest that sensitivity to speakers' production choices may help children learn about the world.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cdev.12527

  View details for Web of Science ID 000379913500016

  View details for PubMedID 27189407

• Comment on "Math at home adds up to achievement in school". Science Frank, M. C. 2016; 351 (6278): 1161-?

  Abstract

  Berkowitz et al. (Reports, 9 October 2015, p. 196) described a randomized field experiment testing whether a math app designed to increase parent-child interaction could also bring academic benefits. A reanalysis of the data suggests that this well-designed trial failed to find strong evidence for the efficacy of the intervention. In particular, there was no significant effect of the intervention on math performance.

  View details for DOI 10.1126/science.aad8008

  View details for PubMedID 26965619

• Response to Comment on "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science" SCIENCE Anderson, C. J., Bahnik, S., Barnett-Cowan, M., Bosco, F. A., Chandler, J., Chartier, C. R., Cheung, F., Christopherson, C. D., Cordes, A., Cremata, E. J., Della Penna, N., Estel, V., Fedor, A., Fitneva, S. A., Frank, M. C., Grange, J. A., Hartshorne, J. K., Hasselman, F., Henninger, F., van der Hulst, M., Jonas, K. J., Lai, C. K., Levitan, C. A., Miller, J. K., Moore, K. S., Meixner, J. M., Munafo, M. R., Neijenhuijs, K. I., Nilsonne, G., Nosek, B. A., Plessow, F., Prenoveau, J. M., Ricker, A. A., Schmidt, K., Spies, J. R., Stieger, S., Strohminger, N., Sullivan, G. B., van Aert, R. M., van Assen, M. M., Vanpaemel, W., Vianello, M., Voracek, M., Zuni, K. 2016; 351 (6277): 1037

  Abstract

  Gilbert et al. conclude that evidence from the Open Science Collaboration's Reproducibility Project: Psychology indicates high reproducibility, given the study methodology. Their very optimistic assessment is limited by statistical misconceptions and by causal inferences from selectively interpreted, correlational data. Using the Reproducibility Project: Psychology data, both optimistic and pessimistic conclusions about reproducibility are possible, and neither are yet warranted.

  View details for PubMedID 26941312

• Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words (Book Review) AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY Book Review Authored by: Frank, M. C. 2016; 129 (1): 99–104

  View details for Web of Science ID 000370469200010

• Adaptive Engagement of Cognitive Control in Context-Dependent Decision Making. Cerebral cortex Waskom, M. L., Frank, M. C., Wagner, A. D. 2016

  Abstract

  Many decisions require a context-dependent mapping from sensory evidence to action. The capacity for flexible information processing of this sort is thought to depend on a cognitive control system in frontoparietal cortex, but the costs and limitations of control entail that its engagement should be minimized. Here, we show that humans reduce demands on control by exploiting statistical structure in their environment. Using a context-dependent perceptual discrimination task and model-based analyses of behavioral and neuroimaging data, we found that predictions about task context facilitated decision making and that a quantitative measure of context prediction error accounted for graded engagement of the frontoparietal control network. Within this network, multivariate analyses further showed that context prediction error enhanced the representation of task context. These results indicate that decision making is adaptively tuned by experience to minimize costs while maintaining flexibility.

  View details for PubMedID 26733531

• Using Tablets to Collect Data From Young Children JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT Frank, M. C., Sugarman, E., Horowitz, A. C., Lewis, M. L., Yurovsky, D. 2016; 17 (1): 1-17

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15248372.2015.1061528

  View details for Web of Science ID 000370614200001

• A robust framework for estimating linguistic alignment in Twitter conversations Doyle, G., Yurovsky, D., Frank, M. C., ACM ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2016: 637-648

  View details for DOI 10.1145/2872427.2883091

  View details for Web of Science ID 000461467400055

• Investigating the Sources of Linguistic Alignment in Conversation Doyle, G., Frank, M. C., Erk, K., Smith, N. A. ASSOC COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS-ACL. 2016: 526-536

  View details for Web of Science ID 000493806800050

• Linguistic structure emerges through the interaction of memory constraints and communicative pressures BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES Lewis, M. L., Frank, M. C. 2016; 39: e82

  Abstract

  If memory constraints were the only limitation on language processing, the best possible language would be one with only one word. But to explain the rich structure of language, we need to posit a second constraint: the pressure to communicate informatively. Many aspects of linguistic structure can be accounted for by appealing to equilibria that result from these two pressures.

  View details for PubMedID 27562423

• An integrative account of constraints on cross-situational learning COGNITION Yurovsky, D., Frank, M. C. 2015; 145: 53-62

  Abstract

  Word-object co-occurrence statistics are a powerful information source for vocabulary learning, but there is considerable debate about how learners actually use them. While some theories hold that learners accumulate graded, statistical evidence about multiple referents for each word, others suggest that they track only a single candidate referent. In two large-scale experiments, we show that neither account is sufficient: Cross-situational learning involves elements of both. Further, the empirical data are captured by a computational model that formalizes how memory and attention interact with co-occurrence tracking. Together, the data and model unify opposing positions in a complex debate and underscore the value of understanding the interaction between computational and algorithmic levels of explanation.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.07.013

  View details for Web of Science ID 000364621100005

  View details for PubMedID 26302052

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4661069

• Predicting the birth of a spoken word PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Roy, B. C., Frank, M. C., DeCamp, P., Miller, M., Roy, D. 2015; 112 (41): 12663-12668

  Abstract

  Children learn words through an accumulation of interactions grounded in context. Although many factors in the learning environment have been shown to contribute to word learning in individual studies, no empirical synthesis connects across factors. We introduce a new ultradense corpus of audio and video recordings of a single child's life that allows us to measure the child's experience of each word in his vocabulary. This corpus provides the first direct comparison, to our knowledge, between different predictors of the child's production of individual words. We develop a series of new measures of the distinctiveness of the spatial, temporal, and linguistic contexts in which a word appears, and show that these measures are stronger predictors of learning than frequency of use and that, unlike frequency, they play a consistent role across different syntactic categories. Our findings provide a concrete instantiation of classic ideas about the role of coherent activities in word learning and demonstrate the value of multimodal data in understanding children's language acquisition.

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1419773112

  View details for Web of Science ID 000363130900038

  View details for PubMedID 26392523

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4611597

• Quantifying naturalistic social gaze in fragile X syndrome using a novel eye tracking paradigm. American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics Hall, S. S., Frank, M. C., Pusiol, G. T., Farzin, F., Lightbody, A. A., Reiss, A. L. 2015; 168 (7): 564-572

  Abstract

  A hallmark behavioral feature of fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the propensity for individuals with the syndrome to exhibit significant impairments in social gaze during interactions with others. However, previous studies employing eye tracking methodology to investigate this phenomenon have been limited to presenting static photographs or videos of social interactions rather than employing a real-life social partner. To improve upon previous studies, we used a customized eye tracking configuration to quantify the social gaze of 51 individuals with FXS and 19 controls, aged 14-28 years, while they engaged in a naturalistic face-to-face social interaction with a female experimenter. Importantly, our control group was matched to the FXS group on age, developmental functioning, and degree of autistic symptomatology. Results showed that participants with FXS spent significantly less time looking at the face and had shorter episodes (and longer inter-episodes) of social gaze than controls. Regression analyses indicated that communication ability predicted higher levels of social gaze in individuals with FXS, but not in controls. Conversely, degree of autistic symptoms predicted lower levels of social gaze in controls, but not in individuals with FXS. Taken together, these data indicate that naturalistic social gaze in FXS can be measured objectively using existing eye tracking technology during face-to-face social interactions. Given that impairments in social gaze were specific to FXS, this paradigm could be employed as an objective and ecologically valid outcome measure in ongoing Phase II/Phase III clinical trials of FXS-specific interventions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/ajmg.b.32331

  View details for PubMedID 26079280

• A Second Look at Automatic Theory of Mind: Reconsidering Kovács, Téglás, and Endress (2010). Psychological science Phillips, J., Ong, D. C., Surtees, A. D., Xin, Y., Williams, S., Saxe, R., Frank, M. C. 2015; 26 (9): 1353-1367

  Abstract

  In recent work, Kovács, Téglás, and Endress (2010) argued that human adults automatically represented other agents' beliefs even when those beliefs were completely irrelevant to the task being performed. In a series of 13 experiments, we replicated these previous findings but demonstrated that the effects found arose from artifacts in the experimental paradigm. In particular, the critical findings demonstrating automatic belief computation were driven by inconsistencies in the timing of an attention check, and thus do not provide evidence for automatic theory of mind in adults.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797614558717

  View details for PubMedID 26253550

• PSYCHOLOGY Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science SCIENCE Aarts, A. A., Anderson, J. E., Anderson, C. J., Attridge, P. R., Attwood, A., Axt, J., Babel, M., Bahnik, S., Baranski, E., Barnett-Cowan, M., Bartmess, E., Beer, J., Bell, R., Bentley, H., Beyan, L., Binion, G., Borsboom, D., Bosch, A., Bosco, F. A., Bowman, S. D., Brandt, M. J., Braswell, E., Brohmer, H., Brown, B. T., Brown, K., Bruening, J., Calhoun-Sauls, A., Callahan, S. P., Chagnon, E., Chandler, J., Chartier, C. R., Cheung, F., Christopherson, C. D., Cillessen, L., Clay, R., Cleary, H., Cloud, M. D., Cohn, M., Cohoon, J., Columbus, S., Cordes, A., Costantini, G., Alvarez, L. D., Cremata, E., Crusius, J., DeCoster, J., DeGaetano, M. A., Della Penna, N., den Bezemer, B., Deserno, M. K., Devitt, O., Dewitte, L., Dobolyi, D. G., Dodson, G. T., Donnellan, M. B., Donohue, R., Dore, R. A., Dorrough, A., Dreber, A., Dugas, M., Dunn, E. W., Easey, K., Eboigbe, S., Eggleston, C., Embley, J., Epskamp, S., Errington, T. M., Estel, V., Farach, F. J., Feather, J., Fedor, A., Fernandez-Castilla, B., Fiedler, S., Field, J. G., Fitneva, S. A., Flagan, T., Forest, A. L., Forsell, E., Foster, J. D., Frank, M. C., Frazier, R. S., Fuchs, H., Gable, P., Galak, J., Galliani, E. M., Gampa, A., Garcia, S., Gazarian, D., Gilbert, E., Giner-Sorolla, R., Gloeckner, A., Goellner, L., Goh, J. X., Goldberg, R., Goodbourn, P. T., Gordon-McKeon, S., Gorges, B., Gorges, J., Goss, J., Graham, J., Grange, J. A., Gray, J., Hartgerink, C., Hartshorne, J., Hasselman, F., Hayes, T., Heikensten, E., Henninger, F., Hodsoll, J., Holubar, T., Hoogendoorn, G., Humphries, D. J., Hung, C. O., Immelman, N., Irsik, V. C., Jahn, G., Jaekel, F., Jekel, M., Johannesson, M., Johnson, L. G., Johnson, D. J., Johnson, K. M., Johnston, W. J., Jonas, K., Joy-Gaba, J. A., Kappes, H. B., Kelso, K., Kidwell, M. C., Kim, S. K., Kirkhart, M., Kleinberg, B., Knezevic, G., Kolorz, F. M., Kossakowski, J. J., Krause, R. W., Krijnen, J., Kuhlmann, T., Kunkels, Y. K., Kyc, M. M., Lai, C. K., Laique, A., Lakens, D., Lane, K. A., Lassetter, B., Lazarevic, L. B., LeBel, E. P., Lee, K. J., Lee, M., Lemm, K., Levitan, C. A., Lewis, M., Lin, L., Lin, S., Lippold, M., Loureiro, D., Luteijn, I., Mackinnon, S., Mainard, H. N., Marigold, D. C., Martin, D. P., Martinez, T., Masicampo, E. J., Matacotta, J., Mathur, M., May, M., Mechin, N., Mehta, P., Meixner, J., Melinger, A., Miller, J. K., Miller, M., Moore, K., Moeschl, M., Motyl, M., Mueller, S. M., Munafo, M., Neijenhuijs, K. I., Nervi, T., Nicolas, G., Nilsonne, G., Nosek, B. A., Nuijten, M. B., Olsson, C., Osborne, C., Ostkamp, L., Pavel, M., Penton-Voak, I. S., Perna, O., Pernet, C., Perugini, M., Pipitone, R. N., Pitts, M., Plessow, F., Prenoveau, J. M., Rahal, R., Ratliff, K. A., Reinhard, D., Renkewitz, F., Ricker, A. A., Rigney, A., Rivers, A. M., Roebke, M., Rutchick, A. M., Ryan, R. S., Sahin, O., Saide, A., Sandstrom, G. M., Santos, D., Saxe, R., Schlegelmilch, R., Schmidt, K., Scholz, S., Seibel, L., Selterman, D. F., Shaki, S., Simpson, W. B., Sinclair, H. C., Skorinko, J. L., Slowik, A., Snyder, J. S., Soderberg, C., Sonnleitner, C., Spencer, N., Spies, J. R., Steegen, S., Stieger, S., Strohminger, N., Sullivan, G. B., Talhelm, T., Tapia, M., te Dorsthorst, A., Thomae, M., Thomas, S. L., Tio, P., Traets, F., Tsang, S., Tuerlinckx, F., Turchan, P., Valasek, M., van 't Veer, A. E., Van Aert, R., van Assen, M., van Bork, R., van de Ven, M., van den Bergh, D., van der Hulst, M., van Dooren, R., van Doorn, J., van Renswoude, D. R., van Rijn, H., Vanpaemel, W., Echeverria, A. V., Vazquez, M., Velez, N., Vermue, M., Verschoor, M., Vianello, M., Voracek, M., Vuu, G., Wagenmakers, E., Weerdmeester, J., Welsh, A., Westgate, E. C., Wissink, J., Wood, M., Woods, A., Wright, E., Wu, S., Zeelenberg, M., Zuni, K. 2015; 349 (6251)

  Abstract

  Reproducibility is a defining feature of science, but the extent to which it characterizes current research is unknown. We conducted replications of 100 experimental and correlational studies published in three psychology journals using high-powered designs and original materials when available. Replication effects were half the magnitude of original effects, representing a substantial decline. Ninety-seven percent of original studies had statistically significant results. Thirty-six percent of replications had statistically significant results; 47% of original effect sizes were in the 95% confidence interval of the replication effect size; 39% of effects were subjectively rated to have replicated the original result; and if no bias in original results is assumed, combining original and replication results left 68% with statistically significant effects. Correlational tests suggest that replication success was better predicted by the strength of original evidence than by characteristics of the original and replication teams.

  View details for DOI 10.1126/science.aac4716

  View details for Web of Science ID 000360646800042

• Relevant and robust: a response to Marcus and Davis (2013). Psychological science Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C., Griffiths, T. L., Tenenbaum, J. B., Battaglia, P. W., Hamrick, J. B. 2015; 26 (4): 539-541

  View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797614559544

  View details for PubMedID 25749699

• Young children's developing sensitivity to discourse continuity as a cue for inferring reference. Journal of experimental child psychology Horowitz, A. C., Frank, M. C. 2015; 129: 84-97

  Abstract

  Children encounter many opportunities for word learning where a novel word (e.g., "chinchilla") coincides in time with the presence of its referent (e.g., a parent pointing at a fuzzy rodent). These two ingredients are not always paired simultaneously, but they sometimes still occur in succession within a discourse. We investigated children's ability to apply their knowledge of discourse structure to infer the referent of a novel word in the absence of social cues such as pointing and eye gaze. In Experiment 1A, we introduced 2- to 6-year-old children and adults to two novel toys and described each using two sentences. We embedded the introduction of a novel label ("Have you seen a toma before?") between the two sentences about one of the toys, with no cues implying the label's referent other than its position in the discourse. Children older than 3 years and adults were more likely to attribute the label to the toy whose descriptions surrounded the naming event. In Experiment 1B, we tested whether participants made their selections based on temporal associations-choosing the toy that was described closest in time to the naming event-rather than inferences about discourse. Participants heard the novel label introduced after the two descriptions of a toy rather than embedded between them. Both children and adults responded close to chance in this experiment, indicating that temporal proximity alone did not guide their selections. Together, these results suggest that children can use discourse position to make inferences about reference in word learning situations.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.08.003

  View details for PubMedID 25279437

• Ad-hoc Implicature in Preschool Children LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Stiller, A. J., Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2015; 11 (2): 176–90

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15475441.2014.927328

  View details for Web of Science ID 000212567000004

• Unsupervised word discovery from speech using automatic segmentation into syllable-like units Rasanen, O., Doyle, G., Frank, M. C., ISCA-INT SPEECH COMMUN ASSOC ISCA-INT SPEECH COMMUNICATION ASSOC. 2015: 3204–8

  View details for Web of Science ID 000380581601206

• Cultural Differences in Perceptual Reorganization in US and Piraha Adults PLOS ONE Yoon, J. M., Witthoft, N., Winawer, J., Frank, M. C., Everett, D. L., Gibson, E. 2014; 9 (11)

  Abstract

  Visual illusions and other perceptual phenomena can be used as tools to uncover the otherwise hidden constructive processes that give rise to perception. Although many perceptual processes are assumed to be universal, variable susceptibility to certain illusions and perceptual effects across populations suggests a role for factors that vary culturally. One striking phenomenon is seen with two-tone images-photos reduced to two tones: black and white. Deficient recognition is observed in young children under conditions that trigger automatic recognition in adults. Here we show a similar lack of cue-triggered perceptual reorganization in the Pirahã, a hunter-gatherer tribe with limited exposure to modern visual media, suggesting such recognition is experience- and culture-specific.

  View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0110225

  View details for Web of Science ID 000345253000003

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4238998

• The role of context in young children's comprehension of negation JOURNAL OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE Nordmeyer, A. E., Frank, M. C. 2014; 77: 25-39

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jml.2014.08.002

  View details for Web of Science ID 000345107300002

• Markers of Topical Discourse in Child-Directed Speech COGNITIVE SCIENCE Rohde, H., Frank, M. C. 2014; 38 (8): 1634-1661

  Abstract

  Although the language we encounter is typically embedded in rich discourse contexts, many existing models of processing focus largely on phenomena that occur sentence-internally. Similarly, most work on children's language learning does not consider how information can accumulate as a discourse progresses. Research in pragmatics, however, points to ways in which each subsequent utterance provides new opportunities for listeners to infer speaker meaning. Such inferences allow the listener to build up a representation of the speakers' intended topic and more generally to identify relationships, structures, and messages that extend across multiple utterances. We address this issue by analyzing a video corpus of child-caregiver interactions. We use topic continuity as an index of discourse structure, examining how caregivers introduce and discuss objects across utterances. For the analysis, utterances are grouped into topical discourse sequences using three annotation strategies: raw annotations of speakers' referents, the output of a model that groups utterances based on those annotations, and the judgments of human coders. We analyze how the lexical, syntactic, and social properties of caregiver-child interaction change over the course of a sequence of topically related utterances. Our findings suggest that many cues used to signal topicality in adult discourse are also available in child-directed speech.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cogs.12121

  View details for Web of Science ID 000344353500004

• Three ideal observer models for rule learning in simple languages (vol 120, pg 360, 2011) COGNITION Frank, M. C., Tenenbaum, J. B. 2014; 132 (3): 501

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.03.003

  View details for Web of Science ID 000340013900022

• Visual search and attention to faces during early infancy. Journal of experimental child psychology Frank, M. C., Amso, D., Johnson, S. P. 2014; 118: 13-26

  Abstract

  Newborn babies look preferentially at faces and face-like displays, yet over the course of their first year much changes about both the way infants process visual stimuli and how they allocate their attention to the social world. Despite this initial preference for faces in restricted contexts, the amount that infants look at faces increases considerably during the first year. Is this development related to changes in attentional orienting abilities? We explored this possibility by showing 3-, 6-, and 9-month-olds engaging animated and live-action videos of social stimuli and also measuring their visual search performance with both moving and static search displays. Replicating previous findings, looking at faces increased with age; in addition, the amount of looking at faces was strongly related to the youngest infants' performance in visual search. These results suggest that infants' attentional abilities may be an important factor in facilitating their social attention early in development.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.08.012

  View details for PubMedID 24211654

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3844087

• Cultural differences in perceptual reorganization in US and Pirahã adults. PloS one Yoon, J. M., Witthoft, N., Winawer, J., Frank, M. C., Everett, D. L., Gibson, E. 2014; 9 (11)

  Abstract

  Visual illusions and other perceptual phenomena can be used as tools to uncover the otherwise hidden constructive processes that give rise to perception. Although many perceptual processes are assumed to be universal, variable susceptibility to certain illusions and perceptual effects across populations suggests a role for factors that vary culturally. One striking phenomenon is seen with two-tone images-photos reduced to two tones: black and white. Deficient recognition is observed in young children under conditions that trigger automatic recognition in adults. Here we show a similar lack of cue-triggered perceptual reorganization in the Pirahã, a hunter-gatherer tribe with limited exposure to modern visual media, suggesting such recognition is experience- and culture-specific.

  View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0110225

  View details for PubMedID 25411970

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4238998

• SPEAKER-INDEPENDENT DETECTION OF CHILD-DIRECTED SPEECH Schuster, S., Pancoast, S., Ganjoo, M., Frank, M. C., Jurafsky, D., IEEE IEEE. 2014: 366–71

  View details for Web of Science ID 000380375100062

• Throwing out the Bayesian baby with the optimal bathwater: Response to Endress (2013) COGNITION Frank, M. C. 2013; 128 (3): 417-423

  Abstract

  A recent probabilistic model unified findings on sequential generalization ("rule learning") via independently-motivated principles of generalization (Frank & Tenenbaum, 2011). Endress critiques this work, arguing that learners do not prefer more specific hypotheses (a central assumption of the model), that "common-sense psychology" provides an adequate explanation of rule learning, and that Bayesian models imply incorrect optimality claims but can be fit to any pattern of data. Endress's response raises useful points about the importance of mechanistic explanation, but the specific critiques of our work are not supported. More broadly, I argue that Endress undervalues the importance of formal models. Although probabilistic models must meet a high standard to be used as evidence for optimality claims, they nevertheless provide a powerful framework for describing cognition.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.04.010

  View details for Web of Science ID 000322803200013

• Throwing out the Bayesian baby with the optimal bathwater: Response to. Cognition Frank, M. C. 2013; 128 (3): 417-23

  Abstract

  A recent probabilistic model unified findings on sequential generalization ("rule learning") via independently-motivated principles of generalization (Frank & Tenenbaum, 2011). Endress critiques this work, arguing that learners do not prefer more specific hypotheses (a central assumption of the model), that "common-sense psychology" provides an adequate explanation of rule learning, and that Bayesian models imply incorrect optimality claims but can be fit to any pattern of data. Endress's response raises useful points about the importance of mechanistic explanation, but the specific critiques of our work are not supported. More broadly, I argue that Endress undervalues the importance of formal models. Although probabilistic models must meet a high standard to be used as evidence for optimality claims, they nevertheless provide a powerful framework for describing cognition.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.04.010

  View details for PubMedID 23774636

• Zipfian frequency distributions facilitate word segmentation in context. Cognition Kurumada, C., Meylan, S. C., Frank, M. C. 2013; 127 (3): 439-453

  Abstract

  Word frequencies in natural language follow a highly skewed Zipfian distribution, but the consequences of this distribution for language acquisition are only beginning to be understood. Typically, learning experiments that are meant to simulate language acquisition use uniform word frequency distributions. We examine the effects of Zipfian distributions using two artificial language paradigms-a standard forced-choice task and a new orthographic segmentation task in which participants click on the boundaries between words in contexts. Our data show that learners can identify word forms robustly across widely varying frequency distributions. In addition, although performance in recognizing individual words is predicted best by their frequency, a Zipfian distribution facilitates word segmentation in context: the presence of high-frequency words creates more chances for learners to apply their knowledge in processing new sentences. We find that computational models that implement "chunking" are more effective than "transition finding" models at reproducing this pattern of performance.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.02.002

  View details for PubMedID 23558340

• Learning and Long-Term Retention of Large-Scale Artificial Languages PLOS ONE Frank, M. C., Tenenbaum, J. B., Gibson, E. 2013; 8 (1)

  Abstract

  Recovering discrete words from continuous speech is one of the first challenges facing language learners. Infants and adults can make use of the statistical structure of utterances to learn the forms of words from unsegmented input, suggesting that this ability may be useful for bootstrapping language-specific cues to segmentation. It is unknown, however, whether performance shown in small-scale laboratory demonstrations of "statistical learning" can scale up to allow learning of the lexicons of natural languages, which are orders of magnitude larger. Artificial language experiments with adults can be used to test whether the mechanisms of statistical learning are in principle scalable to larger lexicons. We report data from a large-scale learning experiment that demonstrates that adults can learn words from unsegmented input in much larger languages than previously documented and that they retain the words they learn for years. These results suggest that statistical word segmentation could be scalable to the challenges of lexical acquisition in natural language learning.

  View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0052500

  View details for Web of Science ID 000313320900027

  View details for PubMedID 23300975

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3534673

• Social and Discourse Contributions to the Determination of Reference in Cross-Situational Word Learning LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Frank, M. C., Tenenbaum, J. B., Fernald, A. 2013; 9 (1): 1–24

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15475441.2012.707101

  View details for Web of Science ID 000212558500001

• An Open, Large-Scale, Collaborative Effort to Estimate the Reproducibility of Psychological Science PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Alexander, A., Barnett-Cowan, M., Bartmess, E., Bosco, F. A., Brandt, M., Carp, J., Chandler, J. J., Clay, R., Cleary, H., Cohn, M., Costantini, G., DeCoster, J., Dunn, E., Eggleston, C., Estel, V., Farach, F. J., Feather, J., Fiedler, S., Field, J. G., Foster, J. D., Frank, M., Frazier, R. S., Fuchs, H. M., Galak, J., Galliani, E. M., Garcia, S., Giammanco, E. M., Gilbert, E. A., Giner-Sorolla, R., Goellner, L., Goh, J. X., Goss, R. J., Graham, J., Grange, J. A., Gray, J. R., Gripshover, S., Hartshorne, J., Hayes, T. B., Jahn, G., Johnson, K., Johnston, W., Joy-Gaba, J. A., Lai, C. K., Lakens, D., Lane, K., LeBel, E. P., Lee, M., Lemm, K., Mackinnon, S., May, M., Moore, K., Motyl, M., Mueller, S. M., Munafo, M., Nosek, B. A., Olsson, C., Paunesku, D., Perugini, M., Pitts, M., Ratliff, K., Renkewitz, F., Rutchick, A. M., Sandstrom, G., Saxe, R., Selterman, D., Simpson, W., Smith, C. T., Spies, J. R., Strohminger, N., Talhelm, T., van 't Veer, A., Vianello, M. 2012; 7 (6): 657-660

  Abstract

  Reproducibility is a defining feature of science. However, because of strong incentives for innovation and weak incentives for confirmation, direct replication is rarely practiced or published. The Reproducibility Project is an open, large-scale, collaborative effort to systematically examine the rate and predictors of reproducibility in psychological science. So far, 72 volunteer researchers from 41 institutions have organized to openly and transparently replicate studies published in three prominent psychological journals in 2008. Multiple methods will be used to evaluate the findings, calculate an empirical rate of replication, and investigate factors that predict reproducibility. Whatever the result, a better understanding of reproducibility will ultimately improve confidence in scientific methodology and findings.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/1745691612462588

  View details for Web of Science ID 000310852500020

• Teaching Replication. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science Frank, M. C., Saxe, R. 2012; 7 (6): 600-4

  Abstract

  Replication is held as the gold standard for ensuring the reliability of published scientific literature. But conducting direct replications is expensive, time-consuming, and unrewarded under current publication practices. So who will do them? The authors argue that students in laboratory classes should replicate recent findings as part of their training in experimental methods. In their own courses, the authors have found that replicating cutting-edge results is exciting and fun; it gives students the opportunity to make real scientific contributions (provided supervision is appropriate); and it provides object lessons about the scientific process, the importance of reporting standards, and the value of openness.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/1745691612460686

  View details for PubMedID 26168118

• Teaching Replication PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Frank, M. C., Saxe, R. 2012; 7 (6): 600-604

  Abstract

  Replication is held as the gold standard for ensuring the reliability of published scientific literature. But conducting direct replications is expensive, time-consuming, and unrewarded under current publication practices. So who will do them? The authors argue that students in laboratory classes should replicate recent findings as part of their training in experimental methods. In their own courses, the authors have found that replicating cutting-edge results is exciting and fun; it gives students the opportunity to make real scientific contributions (provided supervision is appropriate); and it provides object lessons about the scientific process, the importance of reporting standards, and the value of openness.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/1745691612460686

  View details for Web of Science ID 000310852500011

• Learning From Others: The Consequences of Psychological Reasoning for Human Learning PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Shafto, P., Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2012; 7 (4): 341-351

  Abstract

  From early childhood, human beings learn not only from collections of facts about the world but also from social contexts through observations of other people, communication, and explicit teaching. In these contexts, the data are the result of human actions-actions that come about because of people's goals and intentions. To interpret the implications of others' actions correctly, learners must understand the people generating the data. Most models of learning, however, assume that data are randomly collected facts about the world and cannot explain how social contexts influence learning. We provide a Bayesian analysis of learning from knowledgeable others, which formalizes how learners may use a person's actions and goals to make inferences about the actor's knowledge about the world. We illustrate this framework using two examples from causal learning and conclude by discussing the implications for cognition, social reasoning, and cognitive development.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/1745691612448481

  View details for Web of Science ID 000305837300003

• Measuring the Development of Social Attention Using Free-Viewing. Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies Frank, M. C., Vul, E., Saxe, R. 2012; 17 (4): 355-375

  Abstract

  How do young children direct their attention to other people in the natural world? Although many studies have examined the perception of faces and of goal-directed actions, relatively little work has focused on what children will look at in complex and unconstrained viewing environments. To address this question, we showed videos of objects, faces, children playing with toys, and complex social scenes to a large sample of infants and toddlers between 3 and 30 months old. We found systematic developmental changes in what children looked at. When viewing faces alone, younger children looked more at eyes and older children more at mouths, especially when the faces were making expressions or talking. In the more complex videos, older children looked more at hands than younger children, especially when the hands were performing actions. Our results suggest that as children develop they become better able to direct their attention to the parts of complex scenes that are most interesting socially.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00086.x

  View details for PubMedID 32693486

• Learning From Others: The Consequences of Psychological Reasoning for Human Learning. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science Shafto, P., Goodman, N. D., Frank, M. C. 2012; 7 (4): 341-51

  Abstract

  From early childhood, human beings learn not only from collections of facts about the world but also from social contexts through observations of other people, communication, and explicit teaching. In these contexts, the data are the result of human actions-actions that come about because of people's goals and intentions. To interpret the implications of others' actions correctly, learners must understand the people generating the data. Most models of learning, however, assume that data are randomly collected facts about the world and cannot explain how social contexts influence learning. We provide a Bayesian analysis of learning from knowledgeable others, which formalizes how learners may use a person's actions and goals to make inferences about the actor's knowledge about the world. We illustrate this framework using two examples from causal learning and conclude by discussing the implications for cognition, social reasoning, and cognitive development.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/1745691612448481

  View details for PubMedID 26168471

• Representing Exact Number Visually Using Mental Abacus JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-GENERAL Frank, M. C., Barner, D. 2012; 141 (1): 134-149

  Abstract

  Mental abacus (MA) is a system for performing rapid and precise arithmetic by manipulating a mental representation of an abacus, a physical calculation device. Previous work has speculated that MA is based on visual imagery, suggesting that it might be a method of representing exact number nonlinguistically, but given the limitations on visual working memory, it is unknown how MA structures could be stored. We investigated the structure of the representations underlying MA in a group of children in India. Our results suggest that MA is represented in visual working memory by splitting the abacus into a series of columns, each of which is independently stored as a unit with its own detailed substructure. In addition, we show that the computations of practiced MA users (but not those of control participants) are relatively insensitive to verbal interference, consistent with the hypothesis that MA is a nonlinguistic format for exact numerical computation.

  View details for DOI 10.1037/a0024427

  View details for Web of Science ID 000299584100015

  View details for PubMedID 21767040

• Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Frank, M. C., Fedorenko, E., Lai, P., Saxe, R., Gibson, E. 2012; 64 (1-2): 74-92

  Abstract

  Language for number is an important case study of the relationship between language and cognition because the mechanisms of non-verbal numerical cognition are well-understood. When the Pirahã (an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe who have no exact number words) are tested in non-verbal numerical tasks, they are able to perform one-to-one matching tasks but make errors in more difficult tasks. Their pattern of errors suggests that they are using analog magnitude estimation, an evolutionarily- and developmentally-conserved mechanism for estimating quantities. Here we show that English-speaking participants rely on the same mechanisms when verbal number representations are unavailable due to verbal interference. Followup experiments demonstrate that the effects of verbal interference are primarily manifest during encoding of quantity information, and-using a new procedure for matching difficulty of interference tasks for individual participants-that the effects are restricted to verbal interference. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that number words are used online to encode, store, and manipulate numerical information. This linguistic strategy complements, rather than altering or replacing, non-verbal representations.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2011.10.004

  View details for Web of Science ID 000300813300003

  View details for PubMedID 22112644

• Measuring the Development of Social Attention Using Free-Viewing INFANCY Frank, M. C., Vul, E., Saxe, R. 2012; 17 (4): 355-375

  View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00086.x

  View details for Web of Science ID 000304820600001

• Three ideal observer models for rule learning in simple languages COGNITION Frank, M. C., Tenenbaum, J. B. 2011; 120 (3): 360-371

  Abstract

  Children learning the inflections of their native language show the ability to generalize beyond the perceptual particulars of the examples they are exposed to. The phenomenon of "rule learning"--quick learning of abstract regularities from exposure to a limited set of stimuli--has become an important model system for understanding generalization in infancy. Experiments with adults and children have revealed differences in performance across domains and types of rules. To understand the representational and inferential assumptions necessary to capture this broad set of results, we introduce three ideal observer models for rule learning. Each model builds on the next, allowing us to test the consequences of individual assumptions. Model 1 learns a single rule, Model 2 learns a single rule from noisy input, and Model 3 learns multiple rules from noisy input. These models capture a wide range of experimental results--including several that have been used to argue for domain-specificity or limits on the kinds of generalizations learners can make-suggesting that these ideal observers may be a useful baseline for future work on rule learning.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.10.005

  View details for Web of Science ID 000293312400007

  View details for PubMedID 21130985

• Overcoming Memory Limitations in Rule Learning LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Frank, M. C., Gibson, E. 2011; 7 (2): 130–48

  View details for DOI 10.1080/15475441.2010.512522

  View details for Web of Science ID 000212551900003

• Beyond Transitional Probabilities: Human Learners Impose a Parsimony Bias in Statistical Word Segmentation Frank, M. C., Arnon, I., Tily, H., Goldwater, S., Ohlsson, S., Catrambone, R. COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY, INC. 2010: 760–65

  View details for Web of Science ID 000392421700272

• Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Winawer, J., Witthoft, N., Frank, M. C., Wu, L., Wade, A. R., Boroditsky, L. 2007; 104 (19): 7780-7785

  Abstract

  English and Russian color terms divide the color spectrum differently. Unlike English, Russian makes an obligatory distinction between lighter blues ("goluboy") and darker blues ("siniy"). We investigated whether this linguistic difference leads to differences in color discrimination. We tested English and Russian speakers in a speeded color discrimination task using blue stimuli that spanned the siniy/goluboy border. We found that Russian speakers were faster to discriminate two colors when they fell into different linguistic categories in Russian (one siniy and the other goluboy) than when they were from the same linguistic category (both siniy or both goluboy). Moreover, this category advantage was eliminated by a verbal, but not a spatial, dual task. These effects were stronger for difficult discriminations (i.e., when the colors were perceptually close) than for easy discriminations (i.e., when the colors were further apart). English speakers tested on the identical stimuli did not show a category advantage in any of the conditions. These results demonstrate that (i) categories in language affect performance on simple perceptual color tasks and (ii) the effect of language is online (and can be disrupted by verbal interference).

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.0701644104

  View details for Web of Science ID 000246461500012

  View details for PubMedID 17470790

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC1876524