Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System
The accepted manuscript version of this article will be publicly available on 02/24/2026
| Autores: | ; ; ; ; ; |
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| Tipo de documento: | Artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad del País Vasco |
| Repositorio: | Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/77376 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10810/77376 |
| Nivel de acceso: | Acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Statistical learning language recurrent regularities information foraging novelty detection curiosity |
| _version_ | 1878739800358387712 |
|---|---|
| author | Frost, Ram |
| author2 | Bogaerts, Louisa Samuel, Arthur G. Magnuson, James S. Holt, Lori L. Christiansen, Morten H. |
| author2_role | author author author author author |
| author_browse | Bogaerts, Louisa Christiansen, Morten H. Frost, Ram Holt, Lori L. Magnuson, James S. Samuel, Arthur G. |
| author_facet | Frost, Ram Bogaerts, Louisa Samuel, Arthur G. Magnuson, James S. Holt, Lori L. Christiansen, Morten H. |
| author_role | author |
| collection | Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación |
| description | The accepted manuscript version of this article will be publicly available on 02/24/2026 |
| eu_rights_str_mv | openAccess |
| format | article |
| id | ES_c83868d6f0e4e1b9aa12d5441094d521 |
| institution | Universidad del País Vasco |
| instname_str | Universidad del País Vasco |
| network_acronym_str | ES |
| network_name_str | España |
| oai_identifier_str | oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/77376 |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | American Physiological Association |
| publisherStr | American Physiological Association |
| reponame_str | Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación |
| spelling | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System Frost, Ram Bogaerts, Louisa Samuel, Arthur G. Magnuson, James S. Holt, Lori L. Christiansen, Morten H. Statistical learning language recurrent regularities information foraging novelty detection curiosity The accepted manuscript version of this article will be publicly available on 02/24/2026 Statistical learning (SL) is typically assumed to be a core mechanism by which organisms learn covarying structures in the environment, with the main purpose of enabling predictions of expected events. Within this theoretical framework, the environment is viewed as relatively stable, and SL ‘captures’ the regularities therein through implicit unsupervised learning. Focusing primarily on language— the domain in which SL theory has been most influential—we review evidence that the environment is far from fixed: it is dynamic, in continual flux, and learners are far from passive absorbers of regularities; they interact with their environments, thereby selecting and even altering the patterns they learn from. We therefore argue for an alternative cognitive architecture, where SL instead serves as a subcomponent of an information foraging (IF) system. IF aims to detect and assimilate novel recurrent patterns in the input that deviate from randomness, for which SL supplies a baseline. The broad implications of this viewpoint and their relevance to recent debates in cognitive neuroscience are discussed. This paper was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) Grant, Project 705/20, awarded to R.F. R.F. and M.H.C. were further supported by a Binational Science Foundation (BSF) grant number 2022082. L.B. received funding within the framework of the Odysseus programme from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Project G0F3121N. The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation provided support to A.G.S. via Grant PID2020-113348GB-I00, and to J.S.M. via Grant PID2020-119131GB-I00. A.G.S. and J.S.M. were supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 and BERC 2022-2025 programs, and by the Spanish State Research Agency through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation SEV-2015-0490 and CEX2020-001010-S. J.S.M. was also supported in part by U.S. National Science Foundation grant 2043903. LLH was supported in part by a US National Science Foundation grant 1950054 and a US National Institutes of Health grant R01DC017734. American Physiological Association http://hdl.handle.net/10810/77376 |
| spellingShingle | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System Frost, Ram Statistical learning language recurrent regularities information foraging novelty detection curiosity |
| title | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System |
| title_full | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System |
| title_fullStr | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System |
| title_full_unstemmed | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System |
| title_short | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System |
| title_sort | Statistical Learning Subserves a Higher Purpose: Novelty Detection in an Information Foraging System |
| topic | Statistical learning language recurrent regularities information foraging novelty detection curiosity |
| topic_facet | Statistical learning language recurrent regularities information foraging novelty detection curiosity |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10810/77376 |