Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

There is substantial variation in language experience betweenlearners, yet there is surprising similarity in the languagestructure they eventually acquire. While it is possible that thiscanalisation of language structure may be due to constraintsimposed by modulators, such as an innate language system, itmay instead derive from the broader, communicativeenvironment in which language is acquired. In this paper, thelatter perspective is tested for its adequacy in explaining therobustness of language learning to environmental variation. Acomputational model of word learning from cross-situational,multimodal information was constructed and tested. Key tothe model’s robustness was the presence of multiple,individually unreliable information sources that could supportlearning when combined. This “degeneracy” in the languagesystem had a detrimental effect on learning when compared toa noise-free environment, but was critically important foracquiring a canalised system that is resistant to environmentalnoise in communication.