Assignments for Fall Term
Note: Assignments will be posted here when handed out. All
assignments will be handed out one week before the due date. During
the class when the assignment is distributed, we will go over material
relevant to the assignment.
Due Oct. 26: Word-to-Meaning Mapping Assignment
Using a proposed procedure for mapping words to meaningful
elements in the world. What assumptions must be made for the procedure
to be a realistic proposal about how kids converge on a useful
word-to-meaning mapping?
Here is the assignment in pdf format and in
postscript format.
And most important: check the website daily for possible
clarifications to the assignment.
Due Nov. 9: The Make-up of Early Child Vocabulary
Learning to manipulate the CHILDES database of transcripts of
child conversations to investigate the kinds of words young children
use. What differences do you find across different types of words?
Here are the files you need for the assignment. (You can also find
these files on the CDF system; see the file description in the assignment
handout.)
adam01.cha
adam20.cha
LEXICON
In case you misplace your copy of the assignment, here it is, in pdf format and in postscript format.
This and subsequent assignments require work on the Dept. of Computer
Science computer system called CDF. You already have accounts
on this system. This FAQ covers
more than you will ever need to know to use CDF. For now, at least
take a look at the welcome message that
tells how to access the labs; the info on user ids
and initial passwords so that you know what you need to login, and
the list of where the labs are
located.
The questions from the assignment along with some sample points we were looking for in
the answers.
Due Nov. 23: Looking for Patterns of Overregularization
Using CHILDES data to determine the pattern of errors children
make. What do those patterns reveal about the rules kids are learning
about their language?
In case you misplace your copy of the assignment, here it is, in pdf format and in postscript format.
Some guidelines for answering the
questions on Assignment 3. These are intended to give you some ideas
of things you should be looking for in the data, and asking yourself.
A really good example of answers to
this assignment.
Due Dec. 7: Overgeneralization and Recovery in Verb Learning
Exploring how children generalize sentence patterns through the
use of a computational model. How do changes in the input to the
model (what the “kid” hears) affect the model's output (what the
“kid” says)?
In case you misplace your copy of the assignment, here it is, in pdf format.
(After Nov. 30.)