Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 270-275.
When less is less and when less is more:
Starting small with staged input
When less is less and when less is more:
Starting small with staged input
Christopher M. Conway
Michelle R. Ellefson
Morten H. Christiansen
Abstract
It has been suggested that external and/or internal limitations may paradoxically
lead to superior learning (i.e., the concepts of "starting small"
and "less is more"; Elman, 1993; Newport, 1990). In this paper,
we explore what conditions might lead to a starting small effect. We report
on four artificial grammar learning experiments with human participants. In
Experiment 1A, we found an effect of starting small with visual center-embedded,
recursive input staged incrementally. Experiment 1B replicated this finding
and extended the effect to right-branching recursive structure. Finally, in
Experiments 2A and 2B we found no effect for starting small with auditory
center-embedded or right-branching input. These results suggest that starting
small can confer a learning advantage but perhaps only under certain conditions.Click here to download a PDF version.
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