Humans weave phonological patterns instinctively. We form phonological patterns at birth,
we spontaneously generate them de novo, and we impose phonological design on both our …

An important aspect of animal perception and cognition is learning to recognize
relationships between environmental events that predict others in time, a form of relational …

Theories of language evolution often draw heavily on comparative evidence of the
communicative abilities of extant nonhuman primates (primates). Many theories have …

Background All animals are anatomically constrained in the number of discrete call types
they can produce. Recent studies suggest that by combining existing calls into meaningful …

A hallmark of the human language faculty is the use of syntactic rules. The natural
vocalizations of animals are syntactically simple, but several studies indicate that animals …

Compared to humans, non-human primates have very little control over their vocal
production. Nonetheless, some primates produce various call combinations, which may …

Do primates have syntax-like abilities? One line of enquiry is to test how subjects respond to
different types of artificial grammars. Results have revealed neural structures responsible for …

Artificial grammar learning (AGL) provides a useful tool for exploring rule learning strategies
linked to general purpose pattern perception. To be able to directly compare performance of …

Comparative research has proven to be a fruitful field of study on the ontogenetic and
phylogenetic evolution of language, and on the cognitive capacities unique to humans or …

Learners often need to extract recurring items from continuous sequences, in both vision
and audition. The best-known example is probably found in word-learning, where listeners …