Petar Milin
Biographic Data
| ID | 966066 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Petar Milin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Petar |
| FAMILY NAME | Milin |
| SIGNATURE | MILIN P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Birmingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9708-7031 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The synergy of linguistic theories and models of learning
Emergence is a key concept in usage-based linguistic theories, which view natural languages as complex systems learned through exposure to usage, by relying on general cognitive functions rather than an innate language faculty and its underlying universal grammar posited by generativist theories. Despite its importance, however, the emergence of language knowledge has often been treated axiomatically rather than being empirically substantiated. W…
L1 listeners’ evaluations of LX speech: The role of listener expectations and personality traits
LX speech tends to receive less favourable judgments, which can be attributed to its non-standard linguistic properties (e.g. foreign accents, grammatical errors). However, the evaluations of LX speech could also be affected by listeners’ expectations and their individual differences. This study extends research on the role of listeners’ expectations (cued by speech accent) and personality traits (Big Five), by examining the degree to which and h…
Optimising participant grouping methods in bilingualism studies: Insights from eye-tracking data
This research addresses two major challenges in studying second language acquisition and bilingualism: reducing overlap in predictor variables and correctly classifying participants into language proficiency levels. Too many relevant predictors can harm statistical analysis due to an increased chance of overlap, known as multicollinearity. To tackle this, we use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on selected predictors to identify proficiency ind…
The interplay of sensory and motoric information on processing emotions in narrative texts
This study examines the comprehension of characters' emotional states in written narrative texts. Recent theories of embodied cognition suggest that emotions are grounded in somatosensory information involving 'reexperiencing' of actions and perceptions. In addition, views of graded embodied cognition suggest that there are levels of the embodiment of language, focusing on how perceptual and motor information interact during text comprehension. I…
Error Correction Learning of Second Language Verbal Morphology: Associating Imperfect Contingencies in Naturalistic Frequency Distributions
We investigate what is learned from exposure to usage in verbal morphology using an error correction mechanism within an associative learning framework. We computationally simulated how second language (L2) learners would respond to naturalistic input of aspectual usage, characterized by "imperfect contingencies," given two types of instructions: grammatical versus lexical. To test these predictions, English native speakers (N = 80) completed thr…
Order Effects in Second Language Learning
We explore how general principles of learning apply to and combine with usage-based approaches to language learning and teaching, with a focus on the effects of order of exposure to new information in second language (L2) instruction. Although the effects of input spacing and timing on memory and learning have been previously explored (see Rogers, 2020; Shintani, 2017, for an overview), the effects of order of exposure to the input remain underst…
Ruled by construal: Framing article choice in English
In cognitive linguistics, grammatical structure is known to be representative of meaning. This is also true of English articles. In this paper, we argue that the choice of article, when the grammar allows it, is dependent on the wider discourse context and most importantly on how the speaker construes this context. Using survey data from 181 native speakers of English, we show that the choice of article depends on the activation of semantic frame…
The role of entrenchment and schematisation in the acquisition of rich verbal morphology
Entrenchment and schematisation are the two most important cognitive processes in language acquisition. In this article, the role of the two processes, operationalised by token and type frequency, in the production of overgeneralised verb forms in Croatian preschool children is investigated using a parental questionnaire and computational simulation of language acquisition. The participants of the questionnaire were parents of children aged 3;0–5…
Cognitive approaches to uniformity and variability in morphology
This special issue of Cognitive Linguistics reexamines the notions of uniformity and variability within morphological systems from a cognitive linguistic standpoint. It challenges traditional perspectives that regard morphological variability as mere deviations from the norm, suggesting instead that such variability is systematic and shaped by external influences including language acquisition and processing constraints. The contributions in this…
On the nature and organisation of morphological categories: Verbal Aspect Through the Lens of Associative Learning
The process by which awareness and/or knowledge of linguistic categories arises from exposure to patterns in data alone, known as emergence, is the corner stone of usage-based approaches to language. The present paper zooms in on the types of patterns that language users may detect in the input to determine the content, and hence the nature, of the hypothesised morphological category of aspect.The large-scale corpus and computational studies we p…
Error-Correction Mechanisms in Language Learning: Modeling Individuals
Since its first adoption as a computational model for language learning, evidence has accumulated that Rescorla-Wagner error-correction learning (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) captures several aspects of language processing. Whereas previous studies have provided general support for the Rescorla-Wagner rule by using it to explain the behavior of participants across a range of tasks, we focus on testing predictions generated by the model in a controlle…
A learning perspective on the emergence of abstractions: The curious case of phone(me)s
In this study, we propose an operationalization of the concept of emergence which plays a crucial role in usage-based theories of language. The abstractions linguists operate with are assumed to emerge through a process of generalization over the data language users are exposed to. Here, we use two types of computational learning algorithms that differ in how they formalize and execute generalization and, consequently, abstraction, to probe wheth…
From their point of view: The Article Category as a Hierarchically Structured Referent Tracking System
Full-fledged grammatical article systems as attested in Germanic and Romance languages are rather uncommon from a typological perspective. The frequency with which articles occur in these languages, together with the difficulty encountered in detecting them and the lack of a water-tight account of article use, make article errors one of the most frequent errors in language produced by L2 learners whose L1 does not feature an article system of sim…
Frogs, apples, and sand: Effects of cognitive and demographic factors on letter fluency performance
What makes the past perfect and the future progressive? Experiential coordinates for a learnable, context-based model of tense and aspect
We examined how language supports the expression of temporality within sentence boundaries in English, which has a rich inventory of grammatical means to express temporality. Using a computational model that mimics how humans learn from exposure we explored what the use of different tense and aspect (TA) combinations reveals about the interaction between our experience of time and the cognitive demands that talking about time puts on the language…
Construal in language: A visual-world approach to the effects of linguistic alternations on event perception and conception
The theoretical notion of ‘construal’ captures the idea that the way in which we describe a scene reflects our conceptualization of it. Relying on the concept of ception – which conjoins conception and perception – we operationalized construal and employed a Visual World Paradigm to establish which aspects of linguistic scene description modulate visual scene perception, thereby affecting event conception. By analysing viewing behaviour after alt…
Towards cognitively plausible data science in language research
Over the past 10 years, Cognitive Linguistics has taken a quantitative turn. Yet, concerns have been raised that this preoccupation with quantification and modelling may not bring us any closer to understanding how language works. We show that this objection is unfounded, especially if we rely on modelling techniques based on biologically and psychologically plausible learning algorithms. These make it possible to take a quantitative approach, wh…
The Myth of Cognitive Decline: Non‐Linear Dynamics of Lifelong Learning
As adults age, their performance on many psychometric tests changes systematically, a finding that is widely taken to reveal that cognitive information‐processing capacities decline across adulthood. Contrary to this, we suggest that older adults' changing performance reflects memory search demands, which escalate as experience grows. A series of simulations show how the performance patterns observed across adulthood emerge naturally in learning …
An amorphous model for morphological processing in visual comprehension based on naive discriminative learning.
A 2-layer symbolic network model based on the equilibrium equations of the Rescorla-Wagner model (Danks, 2003) is proposed. The study first presents 2 experiments in Serbian, which reveal for sentential reading the inflectional paradigmatic effects previously observed by Milin, Filipović Đurđević, and Moscoso del Prado Martín (2009) for unprimed lexical decision. The empirical results are successfully modeled without having to assume separate rep…
Allomorphic responses in Serbian pseudo-nouns as a result of analogical learning
Allomorphy is a phenomenon that occurs in many languages. Several psycholinguistic studies have shown that allomorphy, if present, co-determines cognitive processing. In the present paper we discuss allomorphic variations of Serbian instrumental singular form of pseudo-nouns as emerging from analogical learning. We compare the predictions derived from memory-based language processing models with results from a previous experimental study with adu…
Analogy in grammar: Form and Acquisition
What makes the past perfect and the future progressive? Experiential coordinates for a learnable, context-based model of tense and aspect
We examined how language supports the expression of temporality within sentence boundaries in English, which has a rich inventory of grammatical means to express temporality. Using a computational model that mimics how humans learn from exposure we explored what the use of different tense and aspect (TA) combinations reveals about the interaction between our experience of time and the cognitive demands that talking about time puts on the language…
On the nature and organisation of morphological categories: Verbal Aspect Through the Lens of Associative Learning
The process by which awareness and/or knowledge of linguistic categories arises from exposure to patterns in data alone, known as emergence, is the corner stone of usage-based approaches to language. The present paper zooms in on the types of patterns that language users may detect in the input to determine the content, and hence the nature, of the hypothesised morphological category of aspect.The large-scale corpus and computational studies we p…
Error-Correction Mechanisms in Language Learning: Modeling Individuals
Since its first adoption as a computational model for language learning, evidence has accumulated that Rescorla-Wagner error-correction learning (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) captures several aspects of language processing. Whereas previous studies have provided general support for the Rescorla-Wagner rule by using it to explain the behavior of participants across a range of tasks, we focus on testing predictions generated by the model in a controlle…
From their point of view: The Article Category as a Hierarchically Structured Referent Tracking System
Full-fledged grammatical article systems as attested in Germanic and Romance languages are rather uncommon from a typological perspective. The frequency with which articles occur in these languages, together with the difficulty encountered in detecting them and the lack of a water-tight account of article use, make article errors one of the most frequent errors in language produced by L2 learners whose L1 does not feature an article system of sim…
Construal in language: A visual-world approach to the effects of linguistic alternations on event perception and conception
The theoretical notion of ‘construal’ captures the idea that the way in which we describe a scene reflects our conceptualization of it. Relying on the concept of ception – which conjoins conception and perception – we operationalized construal and employed a Visual World Paradigm to establish which aspects of linguistic scene description modulate visual scene perception, thereby affecting event conception. By analysing viewing behaviour after alt…
Towards cognitively plausible data science in language research
Over the past 10 years, Cognitive Linguistics has taken a quantitative turn. Yet, concerns have been raised that this preoccupation with quantification and modelling may not bring us any closer to understanding how language works. We show that this objection is unfounded, especially if we rely on modelling techniques based on biologically and psychologically plausible learning algorithms. These make it possible to take a quantitative approach, wh…
Order Effects in Second Language Learning
We explore how general principles of learning apply to and combine with usage-based approaches to language learning and teaching, with a focus on the effects of order of exposure to new information in second language (L2) instruction. Although the effects of input spacing and timing on memory and learning have been previously explored (see Rogers, 2020; Shintani, 2017, for an overview), the effects of order of exposure to the input remain underst…
Analogy in grammar: Form and Acquisition
An amorphous model for morphological processing in visual comprehension based on naive discriminative learning.
A 2-layer symbolic network model based on the equilibrium equations of the Rescorla-Wagner model (Danks, 2003) is proposed. The study first presents 2 experiments in Serbian, which reveal for sentential reading the inflectional paradigmatic effects previously observed by Milin, Filipović Đurđević, and Moscoso del Prado Martín (2009) for unprimed lexical decision. The empirical results are successfully modeled without having to assume separate rep…
Allomorphic responses in Serbian pseudo-nouns as a result of analogical learning
Allomorphy is a phenomenon that occurs in many languages. Several psycholinguistic studies have shown that allomorphy, if present, co-determines cognitive processing. In the present paper we discuss allomorphic variations of Serbian instrumental singular form of pseudo-nouns as emerging from analogical learning. We compare the predictions derived from memory-based language processing models with results from a previous experimental study with adu…
The Myth of Cognitive Decline: Non‐Linear Dynamics of Lifelong Learning
As adults age, their performance on many psychometric tests changes systematically, a finding that is widely taken to reveal that cognitive information‐processing capacities decline across adulthood. Contrary to this, we suggest that older adults' changing performance reflects memory search demands, which escalate as experience grows. A series of simulations show how the performance patterns observed across adulthood emerge naturally in learning …
Towards cognitively plausible data science in language research
Over the past 10 years, Cognitive Linguistics has taken a quantitative turn. Yet, concerns have been raised that this preoccupation with quantification and modelling may not bring us any closer to understanding how language works. We show that this objection is unfounded, especially if we rely on modelling techniques based on biologically and psychologically plausible learning algorithms. These make it possible to take a quantitative approach, wh…
Construal in language: A visual-world approach to the effects of linguistic alternations on event perception and conception
The theoretical notion of ‘construal’ captures the idea that the way in which we describe a scene reflects our conceptualization of it. Relying on the concept of ception – which conjoins conception and perception – we operationalized construal and employed a Visual World Paradigm to establish which aspects of linguistic scene description modulate visual scene perception, thereby affecting event conception. By analysing viewing behaviour after alt…
Frogs, apples, and sand: Effects of cognitive and demographic factors on letter fluency performance
What makes the past perfect and the future progressive? Experiential coordinates for a learnable, context-based model of tense and aspect
We examined how language supports the expression of temporality within sentence boundaries in English, which has a rich inventory of grammatical means to express temporality. Using a computational model that mimics how humans learn from exposure we explored what the use of different tense and aspect (TA) combinations reveals about the interaction between our experience of time and the cognitive demands that talking about time puts on the language…
A learning perspective on the emergence of abstractions: The curious case of phone(me)s
In this study, we propose an operationalization of the concept of emergence which plays a crucial role in usage-based theories of language. The abstractions linguists operate with are assumed to emerge through a process of generalization over the data language users are exposed to. Here, we use two types of computational learning algorithms that differ in how they formalize and execute generalization and, consequently, abstraction, to probe wheth…
From their point of view: The Article Category as a Hierarchically Structured Referent Tracking System
Full-fledged grammatical article systems as attested in Germanic and Romance languages are rather uncommon from a typological perspective. The frequency with which articles occur in these languages, together with the difficulty encountered in detecting them and the lack of a water-tight account of article use, make article errors one of the most frequent errors in language produced by L2 learners whose L1 does not feature an article system of sim…
Ruled by construal: Framing article choice in English
In cognitive linguistics, grammatical structure is known to be representative of meaning. This is also true of English articles. In this paper, we argue that the choice of article, when the grammar allows it, is dependent on the wider discourse context and most importantly on how the speaker construes this context. Using survey data from 181 native speakers of English, we show that the choice of article depends on the activation of semantic frame…
The role of entrenchment and schematisation in the acquisition of rich verbal morphology
Entrenchment and schematisation are the two most important cognitive processes in language acquisition. In this article, the role of the two processes, operationalised by token and type frequency, in the production of overgeneralised verb forms in Croatian preschool children is investigated using a parental questionnaire and computational simulation of language acquisition. The participants of the questionnaire were parents of children aged 3;0–5…
Cognitive approaches to uniformity and variability in morphology
This special issue of Cognitive Linguistics reexamines the notions of uniformity and variability within morphological systems from a cognitive linguistic standpoint. It challenges traditional perspectives that regard morphological variability as mere deviations from the norm, suggesting instead that such variability is systematic and shaped by external influences including language acquisition and processing constraints. The contributions in this…
On the nature and organisation of morphological categories: Verbal Aspect Through the Lens of Associative Learning
The process by which awareness and/or knowledge of linguistic categories arises from exposure to patterns in data alone, known as emergence, is the corner stone of usage-based approaches to language. The present paper zooms in on the types of patterns that language users may detect in the input to determine the content, and hence the nature, of the hypothesised morphological category of aspect.The large-scale corpus and computational studies we p…
Error-Correction Mechanisms in Language Learning: Modeling Individuals
Since its first adoption as a computational model for language learning, evidence has accumulated that Rescorla-Wagner error-correction learning (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) captures several aspects of language processing. Whereas previous studies have provided general support for the Rescorla-Wagner rule by using it to explain the behavior of participants across a range of tasks, we focus on testing predictions generated by the model in a controlle…
Optimising participant grouping methods in bilingualism studies: Insights from eye-tracking data
This research addresses two major challenges in studying second language acquisition and bilingualism: reducing overlap in predictor variables and correctly classifying participants into language proficiency levels. Too many relevant predictors can harm statistical analysis due to an increased chance of overlap, known as multicollinearity. To tackle this, we use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on selected predictors to identify proficiency ind…
The interplay of sensory and motoric information on processing emotions in narrative texts
This study examines the comprehension of characters' emotional states in written narrative texts. Recent theories of embodied cognition suggest that emotions are grounded in somatosensory information involving 'reexperiencing' of actions and perceptions. In addition, views of graded embodied cognition suggest that there are levels of the embodiment of language, focusing on how perceptual and motor information interact during text comprehension. I…
Error Correction Learning of Second Language Verbal Morphology: Associating Imperfect Contingencies in Naturalistic Frequency Distributions
We investigate what is learned from exposure to usage in verbal morphology using an error correction mechanism within an associative learning framework. We computationally simulated how second language (L2) learners would respond to naturalistic input of aspectual usage, characterized by "imperfect contingencies," given two types of instructions: grammatical versus lexical. To test these predictions, English native speakers (N = 80) completed thr…
Order Effects in Second Language Learning
We explore how general principles of learning apply to and combine with usage-based approaches to language learning and teaching, with a focus on the effects of order of exposure to new information in second language (L2) instruction. Although the effects of input spacing and timing on memory and learning have been previously explored (see Rogers, 2020; Shintani, 2017, for an overview), the effects of order of exposure to the input remain underst…
The synergy of linguistic theories and models of learning
Emergence is a key concept in usage-based linguistic theories, which view natural languages as complex systems learned through exposure to usage, by relying on general cognitive functions rather than an innate language faculty and its underlying universal grammar posited by generativist theories. Despite its importance, however, the emergence of language knowledge has often been treated axiomatically rather than being empirically substantiated. W…
L1 listeners’ evaluations of LX speech: The role of listener expectations and personality traits
LX speech tends to receive less favourable judgments, which can be attributed to its non-standard linguistic properties (e.g. foreign accents, grammatical errors). However, the evaluations of LX speech could also be affected by listeners’ expectations and their individual differences. This study extends research on the role of listeners’ expectations (cued by speech accent) and personality traits (Big Five), by examining the degree to which and h…
Psychology (16 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Linguistics (13 works) · Cognitive psychology (11 works) · Cognition (9 works) · Cognitive science (8 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (7 works) · Artificial Intelligence (6 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (6 works) · Natural language processing (6 works)