scholarly journals The blowfish effect: children and adults use atypical exemplars to infer more narrow categories during word learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (05) ◽  
pp. 938-954
Author(s):  
Lauren L. EMBERSON ◽  
Nicole LONCAR ◽  
Carolyn MAZZEI ◽  
Isaac TREVES ◽  
Adele E. GOLDBERG
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Category Learning ◽  
Category Member ◽  
Coincidence Effect ◽  
Independent Work ◽  
Basic Level

AbstractLearners preferentially interpret novel nouns at the basic level (‘dog’) rather than at a more narrow level (‘Labrador’). This ‘basic-level bias’ is mitigated by statistics: children and adults are more likely to interpret a novel noun at a more narrow label if they witness ‘a suspicious coincidence’ – the word applied to three exemplars of the same narrow category. Independent work has found that exemplar typicality influences learners’ inferences and category learning. We bring these lines of work together to investigate whether the content (typicality) of a single exemplar affects the level of interpretation of words and whether an atypicality effect interacts with input statistics. Results demonstrate that both four- to five-year-olds and adults tend to assign a narrower interpretation to a word if it is exemplified by an atypical category member. This atypicality effect is roughly as strong as, and independent of, the suspicious coincidence effect, which is replicated.

scholarly journals Still Suspicious: The Suspicious-Coincidence Effect Revisited

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 2039-2047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly L. Lewis ◽  
Michael C. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Level Of Abstraction ◽  
Experimental Parameters ◽  
Coincidence Effect ◽  
Subordinate Meaning ◽  
Basic Level

Imagine hearing someone call a particular dalmatian a “dax.” The meaning of the novel noun dax is ambiguous between the subordinate meaning (dalmatian) and the basic-level meaning (dog). Yet both children and adults successfully learn noun meanings at the intended level of abstraction from similar evidence. Xu and Tenenbaum (2007a) provided an explanation for this apparent puzzle: Learners assume that examples are sampled from the true underlying category (strong sampling), making cases in which there are more observed exemplars more consistent with a subordinate meaning than cases in which there are fewer exemplars (the suspicious-coincidence effect). Authors of more recent work (Spencer, Perone, Smith, & Samuelson, 2011) have questioned the relevance of this finding, however, arguing that the effect occurs only when the examples are presented to the learner simultaneously. Across a series of 12 experiments ( N = 600), we systematically manipulated several experimental parameters that varied across previous studies, and we successfully replicated the findings of both sets of authors. Taken together, our data suggest that the suspicious-coincidence effect in fact is robust to presentation timing of examples but is sensitive to another factor that varied in the Spencer et al. (2011) experiments, namely, trial order. Our work highlights the influence of pragmatics on behavior in experimental tasks.

Many to Many Category Learning: Building or Pruning? Implications for Human Word Learning

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. A. Wasserman ◽  
Tanja Roembke ◽  
Darin Casler ◽  
Bob McMurray
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Category Learning

The Effects of Prior Processing Episodes on Basic level Superiority

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie L. Lin ◽  
Gregory L. Murphy ◽  
Edward J. Shoben
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects ◽  
Category Member ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
Categorization Task ◽  
Subordinate Level ◽  
Stable Invariant ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Prior Processing

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of prior processing episodes on people's preference for categorizing objects at the basic level (e.g. dog) relative to their preference for categorizing at the superordinate (e.g. animal) and the subordinate (e.g. Dalmation) levels. The prior processing episode in Experiment 1 was designed to induce subjects to activate representations at the superordinate level, and those in the remaining experiments were designed to induce subjects to differentiate objects at the subordinate level. After the prior processing episodes, subjects performed either a free naming or a picture categorization task that required them to decide whether an illustrated object belonged to a specified category. Results showed that prior processing episodes modestly reduced the superiority of basic level to superordinate level and subordinate level in categorization but not in free naming. The results suggest that the basic-level advantage is subject to the effects of context, but the effects are not as strong as the context effects on other aspects of categorization behaviour (e.g. rating typicality of a category member). Hence, the preference for the basic level is a somewhat more stable, invariant aspect of conceptual representation. Possible determinations of this stability are discussed.

Come down from the clouds: Grounding Bayesian insights in developmental and behavioral processes

2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 204-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin W. Jenkins ◽  
Larissa K. Samuelson ◽  
John P. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Coincidence Effect

AbstractAccording to Jones & Love (J&L), Bayesian theories are too often isolated from other theories and behavioral processes. Here, we highlight examples of two types of isolation from the field of word learning. Specifically, Bayesian theories ignore emergence, critical to development theory, and have not probed the behavioral details of several key phenomena, such as the “suspicious coincidence” effect.

What categorical induction variability reveals about typical and atypical development

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Lisa TECOULESCO ◽  
Deborah FEIN ◽  
Letitia R. NAIGLES
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Category Member ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Shape Bias ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Atypical Development

Abstract Categorical induction abilities are robust in typically developing (TD) preschoolers, while children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) frequently perform inconsistently on tasks asking for the transference of traits from a known category member to a new example based on shared category membership. Here, TD five-year-olds and six-year-olds with ASD participated in a categorical induction task; the TD children performed significantly better and more consistently than the children with ASD. Concurrent verbal and nonverbal tests were not significant correlates; however, the TD children's shape bias performance at two years of age was significantly positively predictive of categorical induction performance at age five. The shape bias, the tendency to extend a novel label to other objects of the same shape during word learning, appears linked with categorical induction ability in TD children, suggesting a common underlying skill and consistent developmental trajectory. Word learning and categorical induction appear uncoupled in children with ASD.

Nouns in early lexicons: evidence, explanations and implications

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Nelson ◽  
June Hampson ◽  
Lea Kessler Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Object Classes ◽  
Noun Bias ◽  
Basic Level

ABSTRACTMany theories of grammatical and lexical acquisition assume that children learn predominantly nouns, and specifically names of objects, when they first begin to acquire words in the second year. We show that the noun bias in early vocabularies is far from universal, and that it rests only in part on the acquisition of object names. An analysis of vocabulary composition from 45 children at 1;8 indicates that more nouns are acquired than all other word classes, but that of the nouns acquired only about half are the names of basic level object classes (BLOCS). An examination of the use of nouns in mother-child discourse shows that non-object words referencing locations, actions and events, for example, are used in distinctive pragmatic and grammatical contexts which might enable a child to grasp the word's use and eventually its meaning. It is concluded that a theory of lexical acquisition in discourse context is required to explain word learning at all levels and for all word types. Implications for semantic bootstrapping theories are considered.

Prologue to the Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne M. Adlof
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Instruction ◽  
Elementary Grades ◽  
Reading Disorders ◽  
Vocabulary Intervention ◽  
New Words ◽  
School Grades ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Ability Levels ◽  
Instructional Settings

Purpose This prologue introduces the LSHSS Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades. The goals of the forum are to provide an overview of the importance of vocabulary to literacy and academic achievement, to review evidence regarding best practices for vocabulary instruction, and to highlight recent research related to word learning with students across different grade levels. Method The prologue provides a foundational overview of vocabulary's role in literacy and introduces the topics of the other ten articles in the forum. These include clinical focus articles, research reviews, and word-learning and vocabulary intervention studies involving students in elementary grades through college. Conclusion Children with language and reading disorders experience specific challenges learning new words, but all students can benefit from high-quality vocabulary instruction. The articles in this issue highlight the characteristics of evidence-based vocabulary interventions for children of different ages, ability levels, and language backgrounds and provide numerous examples of intervention activities that can be modified for use in individual, small-group, or large-group instructional settings.

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