Atelier coordinated by Pieter Wellens

 

 

Agent-based modelling of language evolution and emergence has progressed enormously over the past few years. Part of this is due to the availability of software frameworks tailored to this type of research. This Atelier builds further on the talks earlier that day and will introduce the participants to the agent-based modelling software tool Babel2.

 

Participants will be able to run series of different types of language games like Naming Games and Guessing Games and will experiment with different strategies. These games and strategies will overlap with those discussed during Pieter Wellens' talk (Lexical Strategies for Language Games) earlier that day.

 

We will show how to keep measure and keep track of specific data in the experiment. Examples are communicative success, cognitive effort, lexicon size. We will also show how to visualise this data from within the software toolchain. 

 

For participants with a programming background we can show them how to design and implement new types of language games and interactions. 

 

 

Steels, L. & Belpaeme, T. (2005). Coordinating perceptually grounded categories through language: A case study for colour. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 469–489.

Baronchelli, A., Loreto, V. & Steels, L. (2008). In-depth analysis of the naming game dynamics: The homogeneous mixing case. International Journal of Modern Physics C , 19, 785–812.

Wellens, P. & Loetzsch, M. (2012). Multi-dimensional meanings in lexicon formation. In L. Steels, ed., Experiments in Cultural Language Evolution, John Benjamins, Amsterdam.