Behavioral evaluation of the depth of language understanding

Develop and validate behavioral measures that can reliably evaluate the depth of language understanding in humans, enabling empirical tests of whether deep understanding requires exportation from the core language system.

Background

The framework distinguishes shallow understanding (based on language statistics) from deep understanding (involving mental models and extra-linguistic systems). To test and potentially falsify the exportation hypothesis, the field needs behavioral metrics that quantify depth of understanding.

The authors note that no consensus exists on such measures, highlighting a methodological gap that impedes rigorous evaluation of deep understanding in cognitive neuroscience and education contexts.