Numeral terms and the predictive potential of Bayesian updating

IF 1.8 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Intercultural Pragmatics Pub Date : 2021-06-01 DOI:10.1515/ip-2021-2015

Izabela Skoczeń, Aleksander Smywiński-Pohl

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract In the experiment described in the paper Noah Goodman & Andreas Stuhlmüller. 2013. Knowledge and im-plicature: Modeling language understanding as social cognition. Topics in Cognitive Science 5(1). 173–184, empirical support was provided for the predictive power of the Rational Speech Act (RSA) model concerning the interpretation of utterances employing numerals in uncertainty contexts. The RSA predicts a Bayesian interdependence between beliefs about the probability distribution of the occurrence of an event prior to receiving information and the updated probability distribution after receiving information. In this paper we analyze whether the RSA is a descriptive or a normative model. We present the results of two analogous experiments carried out in Polish. The first experiment does not replicate the original empirical results. We find that this is due to different answers on the prior probability distribution. However, the model predicts the different results on the basis of different collected priors: Bayesian updating predicts human reasoning. By contrast, the second experiment, where the answers on the prior probability distribution are as predicted, is a replication of the original results. In light of these results we conclude that the RSA is a robust, descriptive model, however, the experimental assumptions pertaining to the experimental setting adopted by Goodman and Stuhlmüller are normative.

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数字项和贝叶斯更新的预测潜力

论文中描述了Noah Goodman & Andreas stuhlm ller的实验。2013. 知识与内涵:语言理解作为社会认知的建模。认知科学专题5(1)。173-184，为理性言语行为(RSA)模型在不确定性语境中对使用数字的话语的解释的预测能力提供了经验支持。RSA预测了接收信息之前关于事件发生概率分布的信念与接收信息后更新的概率分布之间的贝叶斯相互依赖关系。本文分析了RSA是描述性模型还是规范性模型。我们提出用波兰语进行的两个类似实验的结果。第一个实验不能重复原来的实验结果。我们发现这是由于对先验概率分布的不同回答。然而，该模型基于不同收集的先验预测不同的结果:贝叶斯更新预测人类推理。相比之下，第二个实验是对原始结果的复制，其中先验概率分布的答案与预测一致。根据这些结果，我们得出结论，RSA是一个稳健的描述性模型，然而，与Goodman和stuhlm ller采用的实验设置有关的实验假设是规范的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Intercultural Pragmatics Multiple-

CiteScore

3.10

自引率

36.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： Intercultural Pragmatics is a fully peer-reviewed forum for theoretical and applied pragmatics research. The goal of the journal is to promote the development and understanding of pragmatic theory and intercultural competence by publishing research that focuses on general theoretical issues, more than one language and culture, or varieties of one language. Intercultural Pragmatics encourages ‘interculturality’ both within the discipline and in pragmatic research. It supports interaction and scholarly debate between researchers representing different subfields of pragmatics including the linguistic, cognitive, social, and interlanguage paradigms. The intercultural perspective is relevant not only to each line of research within pragmatics but also extends to several other disciplines such as anthropology, theoretical and applied linguistics, psychology, communication, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and bi- and multilingualism. Intercultural Pragmatics makes a special effort to cross disciplinary boundaries. What we primarily look for is innovative approaches and ideas that do not always fit into existing paradigms, and lead to new ways of thinking about language. Intercultural Pragmatics has always encouraged the publication of theoretical papers including linguistic and philosophical pragmatics that are very important for research in intercultural pragmatics.