SSP Forum: Robert Hawkins on linguistic conventions

The
Symbolic Systems Forum
(community sessions of SYMSYS 280 - Symbolic Systems Research Seminar)
presents

From partners to populations: Balancing specificity and generalizability in the emergence of linguistic conventions

Robert Hawkins
Linguistics Department

Monday, November 4, 2024
12;30-1:20 pm PT
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg. 460), Room 126
In-person event, not recorded 
(see below for entry instructions if you are not an active Stanford affiliate)

Note: Lunch is provided, if pre-ordered, only for members of SYMSYS 280, but others are welcome to bring a lunch and eat during the presentation.

ABSTRACT:

One of the most important properties of social conventions is their generalizability. They amortize costly on-the-fly coordination into priors that allow us to interact flexibly with new social partners in new situations. But how do generalizable conventions emerge in the first place when so much of social interaction is situation-specific? In this talk, I will present a model that aims to explain the balance between specificity and generalization via three basic components: structured uncertainty about which conventions will hold for which people, social inference to adapt to specific partners given past interactions, and hierarchical learning to abstract away "communal lexicons" that may apply more broadly across entire communities. I will test the model's predictions using data from experiments where we connected participants over the web for a series of communication games, allowing us to measure the emergence of signaling conventions in social groups. Together, this line of work aims to bridge the "micro" level of individual cognition with the "macro" level of collective behavior.

NOTES ON ENTRY TO THE MEETING ROOM:

Entry to the building is open to anyone with an active Stanford ID via the card readers next to each door. If you do not have a Stanford ID, you can gain entry between 12:15 and 12:30pm ONLY by knocking on the exterior windows of room 126. These windows are to the left of the west side exterior door on the first floor of Margaret Jacks Hall, which faces the back east side of Building 420. Please do not knock on these windows after 12:30pm when the talk has started. We will not be able to come out and open the door for you at that point.