Computer Program Yields Clues About Baby Talk (broadcast Friday, July 27th, 2007)

Studying how children process vowel sounds in nonsense words. Image courtesy J. Werker, University of British Columbia

A computer program may explain how babies learn to talk. Researchers have studied how babies learn to distinguish vowel sounds in different languages, and they've created a computer program that can learn in the same way. We'll talk with one of the researchers about the work.

Guests

James McClelland
Professor of Psychology
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California

Related Links

• Bare-Bones Program Learns English and Japanese Vowels: Scientific American
• Computer program can learn baby talk - Yahoo! News

Segment produced by:Flora Lichtman

Stories for
Friday, July 27th, 2007

• NASA Plagued By Reports Of Intoxication, Sabotage
• Mars Rovers Battle Storms On The Red Planet
• Drawing The Line Between Science And Politics
• The Future Of Fast-acting Depression Medication
• Computer Program Yields Clues About Baby Talk
• Protecting Privacy In A Web-searching World

Elsewhere on Sciencefriday.com

Explore More

• Communications
• Computers
• Child Development