Effects
of number and irregular forms of exemplars on rule acquisition
H. Nagata |
To
examine the assumption of Chomsky and others about a Language Acquisition
Device, the number and the Irregular Forms of exemplars were controlled
by using the rule adopted by Palermo & Eberhart (1968). The results
showed that 1) as the number of exemplars presented increased, the
mean number of trials to reach a criterion of rule acquisition decreased
significantly, although no difference was found between the mean
number of exemplars, 2) this relationship remained consistent regardless
of the insertion of Irregular Forms among the Regular Forms, 3) rule
acquisition was not possible on a `basis of insufficient information
about the rule structure. Implications of these results were discussed
from the viewpoint that a constant amount of experience together
with a certain kind of information is required for rule acquisition.
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