Linguistic and non-linguistic pattern learning have been studied separately, but we argue for a comparative approach. Analogous inductive problems arise in phonological and visual pattern learning. Evidence from three experiments shows that human learners can solve them in analogous ways, and that human performance in both cases can be captured by the same models. We test GMECCS, an implementation of the Configural Cue Model in a Maximum Entropy phonotactic-learning framework with a single free parameter, against the alternative hypothesis that learners (...) seek featurally simple algebraic rules. We study the full typology of patterns introduced by Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (), instantiated as both phonotactic patterns and visual analogs, using unsupervised training. Unlike SHJ, Experiments 1 and 2 found that both phonotactic and visual patterns that depended on fewer features could be more difficult than those that depended on more features, as predicted by GMECCS but not by rule-seeking. GMECCS also correctly predicted performance differences between stimulus subclasses within each pattern. A third experiment tried supervised training to elicit simple rule-seeking phonotactic learning, but cue-based behavior persisted. We conclude that similar cue-based cognitive processes are available for phonological and visual concept learning, and hence that studying either kind of learning can lead to significant insights about the other. (shrink)

Just as Boolean rules define Boolean categories, the Boolean operators define higher-order Boolean categories referred to as modal categories. We examine the similarity order between these categories and the standard category of logical identity (i.e. the modal category defined by the biconditional or equivalence operator). Our goal is 4-fold: first, to introduce a similarity measure for determining this similarity order; second, to show that such a measure is a good predictor of the similarity assessment behaviour observed in our experiment involving (...) key modal categories; third, to argue that as far as the modal categories are concerned, configural similarity assessment may be componential or analytical in nature; and lastly, to draw attention to the intimate interplay that may exist between deductive judgments, similarity assessment and categorisation. (shrink)