FROMANNUAL REVIEWS

CogSci 2025

•

August 02, 2025

•

San Francisco, United States

keywords:

semantics of language

social cognition

semantic memory

computational modeling

psychology

Distributional semantic models (DSMs) are computational models that learn semantic relationships through word co-occurrence patterns, broadly aligning with human statistical learning mechanisms. Prior research has shown that DSMs capture not only general semantic structure but also human social biases. For example, Caliskan et al. (2017) demonstrated that pre-trained word embeddings encode associations that mirror implicit stereotypes measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT). To better understands how DSMs acquire these biases, we examined the roles of two distinct sources of distributional information: first-order (direct co-occurrence) and second-order (indirect co-occurrence) statistics. Our analysis revealed that nearly all biases tested could be accounted for by first-order statistics alone, while about half were significant in second-order statistics. Every bias was present in at least one of these co-occurrence types, with nuanced variation in how different topics exhibited bias across first- and second-order associations. These findings suggest that implicit biases in DSMs can be attributed to simple co-occurrence patterns, predominantly direct associations. Moreover, they support theories positing that implicit biases reflect statistical regularities in the environment rather than personal attitudes. This work highlights how these biases are embedded in natural language and how a cognitive system capable of statistical learning could acquire implicit biases through the same mechanisms that shape human semantic memory.

Downloads

Paper

Next from CogSci 2025

Heritage Language vs. Dominant Language: When Bilinguals Excel in Unexpected Ways
poster

Heritage Language vs. Dominant Language: When Bilinguals Excel in Unexpected Ways

CogSci 2025

Natsuki Atagi and 2 other authors

02 August 2025

Similar lecture

Are Global Statistics Discarded Statistics? An Investigation of What Types of  Co-Occurrence Statistics Could Support the Acquisition of Semantic Knowledge
poster

Are Global Statistics Discarded Statistics? An Investigation of What Types of Co-Occurrence Statistics Could Support the Acquisition of Semantic Knowledge

CogSci 2025

Catarina Vales
Molly Niehaus and 2 other authors

31 July 2025

Stay up to date with the latest Underline news!

Select topic of interest (you can select more than one)

PRESENTATIONS

  • All Presentations
  • For Librarians
  • Resource Center
  • Free Trial
Underline Science, Inc.
1216 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001, USA

© 2026 Underline - All rights reserved

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.