Thresholding Word Activations For Response Scoring - Modelling Psycholinguistic Data

In the present paper we replicate simulations of infant word learning and the effect of variation in the input. We then investigate to what extent the results are influenced by the way in which the continuous response functions are treated and what effects the use of thresholds can have on the data. Our results show that the underlying response pattern, as uncovered by different thresholds, varies greatly. Nonetheless, the overall output of the model is often correct and able to generalise to unseen data. Thus, we show that the model can give correct responses even in uncertain circumstances. Links of this finding to language acquisition research are discussed.