Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 268, Issue 1472, Pages 1189-1196Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2001.1629
Keywords
universal grammar; language evolution; game theory; evolutionary dynamics; learning; fitness
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The language acquisition period in humans lasts about 13 years. After puberty it becomes increasingly difficult to learn a language. We explain this phenomenon by using an evolutionary framework. We present a dynamical system describing competition between language acquisition devices, which differ in the length of the learning period. There are two selective forces: that play a role in determining the critical learning period: (i) having a longer learning period increases the accuracy of language acquisition; (ii) learning is associated with certain costs that affect fitness. As a result, there exists a limited learning period which is evolutionarily stable. This result is obtained analytically by means of a Nash equilibrium analysis of language acquisition devices. Interestingly the evolutionarily stable learning period does not maximize the average fitness of the population.
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