Fast mapping, slow learning: disambiguation of novel word-object mappings in relation to vocabulary learning at 18, 24, and 30months.
When hearing a novel name, children tend to select a novel object rather than a familiar one, a bias known as disambiguation. Using online processing measures with 18-, 24-, and 30-month-olds, we investigate how the development of this bias relates to word learning. Children's proportion of looking time to a novel object after hearing a novel name related to their success in retention of the novel word, and also to their vocabulary size. However, skill in disambiguation and retention of novel words developed gradually: 18-month-olds did not show a reliable preference for the novel object after labeling; 24-month-olds reliably looked at a novel object on Disambiguation trials but showed no evidence of retention; and 30-month-olds succeeded on Disambiguation trials and showed only fragile evidence of retention. We conclude that the ability to find the referent of a novel word in ambiguous contexts is a skill that improves from 18 to 30months of age. Word learning is characterized as an incremental process that is related to - but not dependent on - the emergence of disambiguation biases.
Stanford University - Department of Psychology, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. ricardoh@stanford.edu
Ricardo A H
RA
Bion
Arielle
A
Borovsky
Anne
A
Fernald
D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013060:Speech; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary