Beyond the limitations of any imaginable mechanism: large language models and psycholinguistics

TL;DR

Large language models, while not detailed human linguistic processors, serve as valuable tools and philosophical references in psycholinguistics due to their success in modeling language.

Contribution

This paper highlights the role of large language models in psycholinguistics as practical tools, comparisons, and philosophical frameworks, despite their limitations.

Findings

Large language models are effective at modeling language tasks.

They are useful for comparative analysis in psycholinguistics.

They serve as philosophical references for understanding language and thought.

Abstract

Large language models are not detailed models of human linguistic processing. They are, however, extremely successful at their primary task: providing a model for language. For this reason and because there are no animal models for language, large language models are important in psycholinguistics: they are useful as a practical tool, as an illustrative comparative, and philosophically, as a basis for recasting the relationship between language and thought.