iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Steven Elmlinger

Dr. Severine Hex, PhD @dr-severinehex.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

I am delighted to share my new paper with coauthors @mh-christiansen.bsky.social, @erin-isbilen.bsky.social, and Dan Rubenstein. We argue that multimodality safeguards signal honesty by forming a multimodal gestalt that increases complexity and facilitates social costs on dishonesty.

cambridge.org

Multimodality as a safeguard of honesty in communication and language: from Animals to Humans | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core

Multimodality as a safeguard of honesty in communication and language: from Animals to Humans

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Reposted by Steven Elmlinger

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 06/02/2026

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the mechanisms of learning from social interaction. Read articles for free: buff.ly/K8v43YM

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Reposted by Steven Elmlinger

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 06/02/2026

From birdsong to human language, acoustic communication by vocal learners involves the concatenation of sounds into sequences. Read 'The social origins of vocal sequences in songbirds and human infants': doi.org/10.1098/rstb... #PhilTransB #evolution

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Reposted by Steven Elmlinger

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 05/02/2026

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the mechanisms of learning from social interaction. Read articles for free: buff.ly/K8v43YM

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Steven Elmlinger @elmlingersteven.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

1/11 Animals often communicate in phrases with sequential structure. Infant vocal learners, however, are often studied one note or syllable at a time. What are the origins of vocal sequences in animals that learn vocal communication? Find out in our new paper spanning songbirds and human infants! 🧵

royalsocietypublishing.org

The social origins of vocal sequences in songbirds and human infants

Abstract. From birdsong to human language, acoustic communication by vocal learners involves the concatenation of sounds into sequences. Sequences are more

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Reposted by Steven Elmlinger

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 09/02/2025

Cool new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social — adults simplify their speech specifically in response to immature vocalizations. Seems like an important mechanism for how infant-directed vocalizations work, with a role for language learning www.cell.com/current-biol...

Learning to speak takes place during a prolonged period of immaturity, which confers advantages for communicative development. Social partners, required for survival in early development, afford feedback for immature vocalizations like babbling and early speech. Feedback, in the form of changes to the linguistic structure of adult speech in response to infant vocalizations, may guide the earliest stages of language acquisition. In a cross-linguistic study of 1,586 transcripts, spanning 13 languages from 5 language families, we investigated whether caregiver talk was consistently influenced by children’s (aged 5–30 months) immature speech. Across languages, we found that most caregivers significantly simplified their linguistic structure in response to children’s immature speech, resulting in reduced lexical diversity, shorter utterance lengths, and higher likelihoods of single-word utterances. Children’s vocalizations elicited learnable language from caregivers, highlighting a potentially widespread feature of language use that is catalyzed by immature behavior. Thus, altriciality allows for immature speech to be a social tool, creating opportunities for learning during social interaction.

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Reposted by Steven Elmlinger

Inbal Arnon @inbalarnon.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

SO very excited about new paper with @simonkirby.bsky.social and @ellengarland.bsky.social: We used infant-inspired tools to analyze eight years of humpback whale song, finding recurring parts with a Zipfian frequency distribution. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Whale song shows language-like statistical structure

Humpback whale song is a culturally transmitted behavior. Human language, which is also culturally transmitted, has statistically coherent parts whose frequency distribution follows a power law. These...

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Steven Elmlinger @elmlingersteven.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

How do languages become learnable for young children? Our new paper in Current Biology shows how “Immature vocalizations elicit simplified adult speech across multiple languages.” 🧵 of our findings below: www.cell.com/current-biol... 1/9

cell.com

Immature vocalizations elicit simplified adult speech across multiple languages

Altriciality, or extended early immaturity, creates opportunities for learning. Across languages, Elmlinger et al. show that parents simplify their speech in response to children’s early vocalizations...

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