Computational basis of contextually grounded language acquisition in humans and machines

The project aims to understand how human children learn their native language simply by interacting with their environment, and how the same learning principles could be utilized in the development of intelligent machines that could understand speech. The focus is on the connection between spoken language and the communicative environments in which language learning takes place, that is, how perception and learning of linguistic patterns is coupled to the meaning of the speech in the given context. The project utilizes computational modelling as the research method, enabling testing of theories of language learning with similar data that language learning infants are exposed to during the learning process. As a result, the project provides new scientific knowledge on the general cognitive and environmental factors and mechanisms that enable language learning in different cultures and language environments.