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Review
. 2022 Jul;14(3):432-450.
doi: 10.1111/tops.12612. Epub 2022 Apr 10.

Acquiring Complex Communicative Systems: Statistical Learning of Language and Emotion

Ashley L Ruba  1 , Seth D Pollak  1 , Jenny R Saffran  1
Affiliations
Review

Acquiring Complex Communicative Systems: Statistical Learning of Language and Emotion

Ashley L Ruba et al. Top Cogn Sci. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

During the early postnatal years, most infants rapidly learn to understand two naturally evolved communication systems: language and emotion. While these two domains include different types of content knowledge, it is possible that similar learning processes subserve their acquisition. In this review, we compare the learnable statistical regularities in language and emotion input. We then consider how domain-general learning abilities may underly the acquisition of language and emotion, and how this process may be constrained in each domain. This comparative developmental approach can advance our understanding of how humans learn to communicate with others.

Keywords: Development; Emotion; Infancy; Language; Statistical learning.

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