Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aipdc
From: aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowley)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Early Language Learning & Ancient Language
Keywords: perception, categorization, negative results
Message-ID: <4231@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 25 May 90 20:43:09 GMT
References: <17809@ultima.cs.uts.oz> <2246@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> <6544@ucrmath.UCR.EDU> <17833@ultima.cs.uts.oz> <1990May25.142052.16989@athena.mit.edu> <2erb02EoaaFS01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Reply-To: aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowley)
Organization: Edinburgh University Computing Service
Lines: 16

Please, everybody, stop throwing absolutes around! "Impossible" is
rarely applicable to the human brain.  Try "hard". 

It _is_ possible to learn to differentiate.  English speakers will
generally hear voiced and unvoiced "l" the same way, but if someone says
"No, listen.  Blank, Clank, Blank.  Hear the difference?" then after a
while you will. 

There is a part of the brain that is designed for the job of learning
languages which stops working at age 7 or so.  But we can still learn
languages using other parts of our brain - it's just harder, and never
quite as natural. 

-- 
\/ o\ Paul Crowley aipdc@uk.ac.ed.castle
/\__/ "Trust me, I know what I'm doing" - Sledge Hammer