Abstract
Pragmatics is a fundamental aspect of language use and learning. In recent years, computational models have been used to specify the computational processes involved in pragmatic inferences – however, this is mainly done for adults and mostly on a group level. In this talk, I will introduce a computational framework to study individual differences in children’s pragmatic word learning. First, I will use this framework to specualte about the evolutionary origins of pragmatics. Next, I will use the modelling framework to predict children’s behavior – on a group level – in a task that requires integrating different pragmatic cues. Then I will show that we can use the same framework to predict individual-level behavior. Finally, I will present a study that uses computational modeling to study individual differences in pragmatic reasoning across three different tasks. Taken together, I hope that this work contributes to a more precise understanding of individual differences in pragmatic abilities.
How to participate
This will be an online event. To request a link to the Zoom webinar, please fill out this online form.