Some mental categories map to percepts which are products of human behaviors, such as linguistic signals. Because behavior is learned and updated by experience, biases in the way a behavior is perceived can influence how it is reproduced, allowing behaviorally based categories to evolve over time. Here we show that this perception–production feedback loop can itself promote preservation of contrast between categories. Using both simulation and analytical tools, we show that asymmetries in the mapping of perceptual variants to competing categories acts to sharpen category boundaries. Evidence from patterns of change in modern languages is consistent with this mechanism. Because the ability to maintain a large number of distinct signal/meaning categories is a prerequisite for complex language, this cognitively general mechanism may have contributed to the initial evolution of the language faculty.

中文翻译：

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品类竞争是品类对比的驱动因素

一些心理类别映射到作为人类行为产物的感知，例如语言信号。因为行为是通过经验学习和更新的，感知行为方式的偏见会影响它的再现方式，从而允许基于行为的类别随着时间的推移而演变。在这里，我们表明这种感知-生产反馈循环本身可以促进类别之间对比的保持。使用模拟和分析工具，我们表明感知变体到竞争类别的映射中的不对称性会加剧类别边界。现代语言变化模式的证据与这种机制是一致的。因为维护大量不同的信号/意义类别的能力是复杂语言的先决条件，