Chapter 13 - Statistical Learning Mechanisms in Infancy

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Infants’ ability to learn about their world is nothing short of astounding. In this chapter, recent research on infants’ ability to learn statistical structure (probability distributions, sequential structure, and associations between different forms of information) and, when possible, the neural processes supporting such learning are reviewed. The review is focused on language development but connections are also made to learning in other domains, such as visual perception and event processing. These studies reveal that infants are not limited to the stimulus–response learning of classical learning theory, but rather learn myriad statistical structures, resulting in sensitivity to fine-grained detail and high-level generalizations.