app03 Mon, 22 Jun 2026 04:50:15 +0000 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) The It's Innate! Podcast - Episodes Tagged with “Statistical Learning” https://itsinnate.fireside.fm/tags/statistical%20learning Fri, 24 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 Two opinionated developmental cognitive scientists wax theoretical about how infants and children acquire knowledge! en-us episodic A podcast by two developmental cognitive scientists Deon Benton & Jenny Wang Two opinionated developmental cognitive scientists wax theoretical about how infants and children acquire knowledge! no cognitive development, developmental psychology, cognitive science, nature vs. nurture, psychology, social science, science Deon Benton & Jenny Wang theitsinnatepodcast@gmail.com Episode 36: The goldilocks of predicability (with Viridiana Benitez) https://itsinnate.fireside.fm/36 3d678e91-6c20-4fd5-92be-bba28ee71464 Fri, 24 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 Deon Benton & Jenny Wang full Deon Benton & Jenny Wang 1:39:44 no <p>This week we had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Viridiana Benitez, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. In the first part of the episode we talked with Dr. Benitez about her academic journey along with how she approaches mentorship. In part two, we turned to her recent paper in Current Biology entitled "Predictable Events Enhance Word Learning in Toddlers." This paper explores how environmental predictability can scaffold novel word learning in toddlers. Towards the end, we discuss the relationship between Dr. Benitez's work in predictability and her work in bilingualism. </p> <p><strong>Links</strong></p> <p>Benitez, V. L., &amp; Saffran, J. R. (2018). Predictable events enhance word learning in toddlers. Current Biology, 28(17), 2787-2793. <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30779-6" rel="nofollow noopener">Link</a> Special Guest: Viridiana Benitez.</p> statistical learning, mechanism, language development This week we had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Viridiana Benitez, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. In the first part of the episode we talked with Dr. Benitez about her academic journey along with how she approaches mentorship. In part two, we turned to her recent paper in Current Biology entitled "Predictable Events Enhance Word Learning in Toddlers." This paper explores how environmental predictability can scaffold novel word learning in toddlers. Towards the end, we discuss the relationship between Dr. Benitez's work in predictability and her work in bilingualism.

Links

Benitez, V. L., & Saffran, J. R. (2018). Predictable events enhance word learning in toddlers. Current Biology, 28(17), 2787-2793. Link

Special Guest: Viridiana Benitez.

]]> This week we had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Viridiana Benitez, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. In the first part of the episode we talked with Dr. Benitez about her academic journey along with how she approaches mentorship. In part two, we turned to her recent paper in Current Biology entitled "Predictable Events Enhance Word Learning in Toddlers." This paper explores how environmental predictability can scaffold novel word learning in toddlers. Towards the end, we discuss the relationship between Dr. Benitez's work in predictability and her work in bilingualism.

Links

Benitez, V. L., & Saffran, J. R. (2018). Predictable events enhance word learning in toddlers. Current Biology, 28(17), 2787-2793. Link

Special Guest: Viridiana Benitez.

]]> Episode 10: That's just a bunch of nonsense you jive turkey https://itsinnate.fireside.fm/10 f3c0a02a-1b06-4873-bb67-af692ccad904 Mon, 20 Feb 2023 23:00:00 -0500 Deon Benton & Jenny Wang full Deon Benton & Jenny Wang 1:15:12 no <p>After taking a semester-long hiatus, Candy and Deon are back! In this episode, they talk about classic work that examined how infants segment continous speech. Specifically, they discuss a classic paper published in Science by Jenny Saffran, Richard Aslin, and Elisa Newport (1996) (as well as follow-up papers) that examined infants' ability to segment speech by tracking the internal statistics of that speech. This episode is unique and unlike other episodes in that Candy and Deon pick on their own kind this time—empiricists! Hide your natvisists, hide your empiricists—no one's safe! </p> <p><strong>Links</strong> </p> <p>Aslin, R. N., Saffran, J. R., &amp; Newport, E. L. (1998). Computation of conditional probability statistics by 8-month-old infants. Psychological science, 9(4), 321-324. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9280.00063?casa_token=4oDOkWSZ4GUAAAAA:BvHwWlVau1Ek0GTSl6XUefCF-LDiHVyEm5J_gxme-XBFbprSgjDJRLTj060dVCQQvs7NZGYZc3QS" rel="nofollow noopener">Link to paper</a> </p> <p>Pelucchi, B., Hay, J. F., &amp; Saffran, J. R. (2009). Statistical learning in a natural language by 8‐month‐old infants. Child development, 80(3), 674-685. <a href="https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01290.x?casa_token=LrtB4I3jai8AAAAA:yzB1WApSw_6Zobof6VwraHtGqZzMU5Sih4loO4S-PtO23tN2bY9wOiJqZNUeBHRHsky7uwC6X1Ta5g" rel="nofollow noopener">Link to paper</a> <br> Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., &amp; Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274(5294), 1926-1928. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.274.5294.1926" rel="nofollow noopener">Link to paper </a><br> Slone, L. K., &amp; Johnson, S. P. (2018). When learning goes beyond statistics: Infants represent visual sequences in terms of chunks. Cognition, 178, 92-102. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027718301367?casa_token=3gs0n72Fvo4AAAAA:HdKKI3uELF8zVCuLDQ3GKhnTUNsStyiL6A8LkKMYje1yRTTOeVxiUP5PwD80QfVUnntuxDny" rel="nofollow noopener">Link to paper</a> </p> statistical learning, mechanism, cognitive development After taking a semester-long hiatus, Candy and Deon are back! In this episode, they talk about classic work that examined how infants segment continous speech. Specifically, they discuss a classic paper published in Science by Jenny Saffran, Richard Aslin, and Elisa Newport (1996) (as well as follow-up papers) that examined infants' ability to segment speech by tracking the internal statistics of that speech. This episode is unique and unlike other episodes in that Candy and Deon pick on their own kind this time—empiricists! Hide your natvisists, hide your empiricists—no one's safe!

Links

Aslin, R. N., Saffran, J. R., & Newport, E. L. (1998). Computation of conditional probability statistics by 8-month-old infants. Psychological science, 9(4), 321-324. Link to paper

Pelucchi, B., Hay, J. F., & Saffran, J. R. (2009). Statistical learning in a natural language by 8‐month‐old infants. Child development, 80(3), 674-685. Link to paper
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274(5294), 1926-1928. Link to paper
Slone, L. K., & Johnson, S. P. (2018). When learning goes beyond statistics: Infants represent visual sequences in terms of chunks. Cognition, 178, 92-102. Link to paper

]]> After taking a semester-long hiatus, Candy and Deon are back! In this episode, they talk about classic work that examined how infants segment continous speech. Specifically, they discuss a classic paper published in Science by Jenny Saffran, Richard Aslin, and Elisa Newport (1996) (as well as follow-up papers) that examined infants' ability to segment speech by tracking the internal statistics of that speech. This episode is unique and unlike other episodes in that Candy and Deon pick on their own kind this time—empiricists! Hide your natvisists, hide your empiricists—no one's safe!

Links

Aslin, R. N., Saffran, J. R., & Newport, E. L. (1998). Computation of conditional probability statistics by 8-month-old infants. Psychological science, 9(4), 321-324. Link to paper

Pelucchi, B., Hay, J. F., & Saffran, J. R. (2009). Statistical learning in a natural language by 8‐month‐old infants. Child development, 80(3), 674-685. Link to paper
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274(5294), 1926-1928. Link to paper
Slone, L. K., & Johnson, S. P. (2018). When learning goes beyond statistics: Infants represent visual sequences in terms of chunks. Cognition, 178, 92-102. Link to paper

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