scholarly journals That’s thee, uuh blicket! How does disfluency affect children’s word learning?

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Katherine S. White ◽  
Elizabeth S. Nilsen ◽  
Taylor Deglint ◽  
Janel Silva
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Separate Group ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
New Words ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Familiar Objects ◽  
Children's Learning ◽  
Fluent Speakers

Disfluencies, such as ‘um’ or ‘uh’, can cause adults to attribute uncertainty to speakers, but may also facilitate speech processing. To understand how these different functions affect children’s learning, we asked whether (dis)fluency affects children’s decision to select information from speakers (an explicit behavior) and their learning of specific words (an implicit behavior). In Experiment 1a, 31 3- to 4-year-olds heard two puppets provide fluent or disfluent descriptions of familiar objects. Each puppet then labeled a different novel object with the same novel word (again, fluently or disfluently). Children more frequently endorsed the object referred to by the fluent speaker. We replicated this finding with a separate group of 4-year-olds in Experiment 1b ( N = 31) and a modified design. In Experiment 2, 62 3- to 4-year-olds were trained on new words, produced following a disfluency or not, and were subsequently tested on their recognition of the words. Children were equally accurate for the two types of words. These results suggest that while children may prefer information from fluent speakers, they learn words equally well regardless of fluency, at least in some contexts.

scholarly journals Effects of language mixing on bilingual children's word learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Krista Byers-Heinlein ◽  
Amel Jardak ◽  
Eva Fourakis ◽  
Casey Lew-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environments ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
New Words ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Novel Targets ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Novel Words ◽  
Children's Learning

Abstract Language mixing is common in bilingual children's learning environments. Here, we investigated effects of language mixing on children's learning of new words. We tested two groups of 3-year-old bilinguals: French–English (Experiment 1) and Spanish–English (Experiment 2). Children were taught two novel words, one in single-language sentences (“Look! Do you see the dog on the teelo?”) and one in mixed-language sentences with a mid-sentence language switch (“Look! Do you see the chien/perro on the walem?”). During the learning phase, children correctly identified novel targets when hearing both single-language and mixed-language sentences. However, at test, French–English bilinguals did not successfully recognize the word encountered in mixed-language sentences. Spanish–English bilinguals failed to recognize either word, which underscores the importance of examining multiple bilingual populations. This research suggests that language mixing may sometimes hinder children's encoding of novel words that occur downstream, but leaves open several possible underlying mechanisms.

Pragmatic directions and children's word learning

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
EVE V. CLARK ◽  
JAMES B. GROSSMAN
Keyword(s):  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
New Words ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Children's Learning

The present study tested the hypothesis that children as young as two use what adults tell them about meaning relations when they make inferences about new words. 18 two-year-olds (mean age 2;2) and 18 three-year-olds (mean age 3;2) learned two new terms (a) with instructions either (i) to treat one term as a superordinate to the other, or (ii) to replace one term with another; and (b) with no instruction given about how two new words might be related. Children were attentive to both kinds of instructions or pragmatic directions, and made use of them in their word-learning. When they received no instruction relating the two new words, they resorted to a range of coping strategies to assign and relate meanings to each other. These findings support the view that children's learning of new word meanings is guided by the pragmatic directions adults offer.

scholarly journals Effects of language mixing on bilingual children’s word learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista Byers-Heinlein ◽  
Amel Jardak ◽  
Eva Fourakis ◽  
Casey Lew-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environments ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
New Words ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Novel Targets ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Novel Words ◽  
Children's Learning

Language mixing is common in bilingual children’s learning environments. Here, we investigated effects of language mixing on children’s learning of new words. We tested two groups of 3-year-old bilinguals: French–English (Experiment 1) and Spanish–English (Experiment 2). Children were taught two novel words, one in single-language sentences (“Look! Do you see the dog on the teelo?”) and one in mixed-language sentences with a mid-sentence language switch (“Look! Do you see the chien/perro on the walem?). During the learning phase, children correctly identified novel targets when hearing both single-language and mixed-language sentences. However, at test, French–English bilinguals did not successfully recognize the word encountered in mixed-language sentences. Spanish–English bilinguals failed to recognize either word, which illustrates the importance of examining multiple bilingual populations. These findings suggest that language mixing can sometimes hinder children’s encoding of novel words that occur downstream, but leave open several possible underlying mechanisms.

The implications of polysemy for theories of word learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahesh Srinivasan ◽  
Hugh Rabagliati
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Fundamental Feature ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Polysemous Words ◽  
Review Current ◽  
Children's Learning

Word learning is typically studied as a problem in which children need to learn a single meaning for a new word. According to most theories, children’s learning is itself guided by the assumption that a new word has only one meaning. However, most words in languages are polysemous, having many related and distinct meanings. In this article, we consider the implications of this disjuncture. As we review, current theories predict that children should struggle to learn polysemous words. Yet recent research shows that young children readily learn multiple meanings for words and represent them in ways that are qualitatively similar to adults. Moreover, polysemy may facilitate word learning by allowing children to use their knowledge of familiar meanings of a word to learn its other meanings. These findings motivate a new perspective on word learning that recognizes polysemy as a fundamental feature of language instead of treating it as an outlying case.

scholarly journals Behavioral and Neurodynamic Effects of Word Learning on Phonotactic Repair

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Gow ◽  
Adriana Schoenhaut ◽  
Enes Avcu ◽  
Seppo P. Ahlfors
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Word Use ◽  
New Words ◽  
Repair Processes ◽  
Eeg Data

Processes governing the creation, perception and production of spoken words are sensitive to the patterns of speech sounds in the language user’s lexicon. Generative linguistic theory suggests that listeners infer constraints on possible sound patterning from the lexicon and apply these constraints to all aspects of word use. In contrast, emergentist accounts suggest that these phonotactic constraints are a product of interactive associative mapping with items in the lexicon. To determine the degree to which phonotactic constraints are lexically mediated, we observed the effects of learning new words that violate English phonotactic constraints (e.g., srigin) on phonotactic perceptual repair processes in nonword consonant-consonant-vowel (CCV) stimuli (e.g., /sre/). Subjects who learned such words were less likely to “repair” illegal onset clusters (/sr/) and report them as legal ones (/∫r/). Effective connectivity analyses of MRI-constrained reconstructions of simultaneously collected magnetoencephalography (MEG) and EEG data showed that these behavioral shifts were accompanied by changes in the strength of influences of lexical areas on acoustic-phonetic areas. These results strengthen the interpretation of previous results suggesting that phonotactic constraints on perception are produced by top-down lexical influences on speech processing.

scholarly journals The effect of shyness on children's formation and retention of novel word–object mappings

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1394-1412 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATT HILTON ◽  
GERT WESTERMANN
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Familiar Objects

AbstractThis study set out to examine whether shyness, an aversion to novelty and unfamiliar social situations, can affect the processes that underlie early word learning. Twenty-four-month-old children (n =32) were presented with sets of one novel and two familiar objects, and it was found that shyer children were less likely to select a novel object as the referent of a novel label. Furthermore, not-shy children then showed evidence of retaining these novel mappings, but shy children did not. These findings suggest that shy children's aversion to novelty and to the unfamiliar context can impact on their word learning.

scholarly journals The Role of Sleep in Retention of New Words in Habitually and Non-Habitually Napping Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1320
Author(s):  
Katherine Esterline ◽  
Rebecca L. Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Retention Performance ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
New Words ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Better Than

Daytime napping contributes to retention of new word learning in children. Importantly, children transition out of regular napping between ages 3–5 years, and the impact of this transition on memory is unclear. Here, we examined the performance of both non-habitually napping children (nap 0–3 days per week, n = 28) and habitually napping children (nap 4–7 days per week, n = 30) on a word learning task after a delay including either sleep or wakefulness. Children ages 3.5–4.5 years old experienced a brief exposure to two novel labels and their referents during training, a scenario that replicates learning experiences children encounter every day. After a 4-h delay, children were tested on the object-label associations. Using mixed effects logistic regression, we compared retention performance. Non-habitual nappers and habitual nappers displayed a different pattern of retention such that non-habitually napping children did equally well on a test of retention regardless of whether they napped or stayed awake during the delay. In contrast, habitually napping children needed a nap after learning to retain the novel object-label associations 4 h later. As a group, habitual nappers who remained awake after learning performed no better than chance on the retention test. As children transition out of naps, they may be less susceptible to interference and are better able to retain newly learned words across a delay including wakefulness.

Discontinuity of Reference Hinders Children's Learning of New Words

2018 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica F. Schwab ◽  
Casey Lew‐Williams
Keyword(s):  
New Words ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Children's Learning

Complexities and constraints in nonword repetition and word learning

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN E. GATHERCOLE
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
New Words ◽  
Language System ◽  
Sound Structure ◽  
Multiple Processes ◽  
Learning Language

Because words represent the building blocks upon which the facility to produce and comprehend language at all levels is based, the capacity of a child to learn words has immense impact on his or her developing abilities to communicate and engage properly with the outside world. Both the Keynote Article and the Commentaries in this issue demonstrate that this capacity to acquire vocabulary is neither singular nor simple. Children may fail to learn new words in as rapid and efficient manner as their peers for many reasons: they may, for example, have inadequate environmental experience of either the spoken and printed form of the language (Huttenlocher, Haight, Bryk, Seltzer, & Lyons, 1991), or they may have poor abilities to produce the sound contrasts of the language (Mirak & Rescorla, 1998). The focus of the present discussion lies somewhere in between these extremes of influence, in the intervening perceptual and cognitive processes that constitute the speech processing and word learning system. Here, too, complexities abound. The developing language system is characterized by dependencies between the multiple processes involved in processing and learning language (Bishop, 1997), rarely evincing the dramatic dissociations in adults with acquired language disorders that have served cognitive neuropsychology so well in its bid to identify a modular structure of the language system. Weaknesses in perceptual analysis of the sound structure of the language, in the storage of the resulting mental representations, and in the availability of existing representations that can support the processing of new words, often coexist within an individual. As a consequence, it can be extremely difficult to tease apart the developmental underpinnings of language acquisition. In this article, I argue that real progress toward understanding vocabulary acquisition requires a substantial and systematic body of research evidence designed to provide strong empirical challenges to existing (and new) hypotheses and theories. Whereas mere description is unlikely to lead to major advances, systematic experimental analysis and the specification of detailed theoretical accounts should result in a more complete understanding of the complexities and constraints of new word learning.

scholarly journals Word learning from a tablet app: Toddlers perform better in a passive context

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0240519
Author(s):  
Lena Ackermann ◽  
Chang Huan Lo ◽  
Nivedita Mani ◽  
Julien Mayor
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Passive Condition ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Video Viewing ◽  
Active Condition ◽  
Children's Learning

In recent years, the popularity of tablets has skyrocketed and there has been an explosive growth in apps designed for children. Howhever, many of these apps are released without tests for their effectiveness. This is worrying given that the factors influencing children’s learning from touchscreen devices need to be examined in detail. In particular, it has been suggested that children learn less from passive video viewing relative to equivalent live interaction, which would have implications for learning from such digital tools. However, this so-called video deficit may be reduced by allowing children greater influence over their learning environment. Across two touchscreen-based experiments, we examined whether 2- to 4-year-olds benefit from actively choosing what to learn more about in a digital word learning task. We designed a tablet study in which “active” participants were allowed to choose which objects they were taught the label of, while yoked “passive” participants were presented with the objects chosen by their active peers. We then examined recognition of the learned associations across different tasks. In Experiment 1, children in the passive condition outperformed those in the active condition (n = 130). While Experiment 2 replicated these findings in a new group of Malay-speaking children (n = 32), there were no differences in children’s learning or recognition of the novel word-object associations using a more implicit looking time measure. These results suggest that there may be performance costs associated with active tasks designed as in the current study, and at the very least, there may not always be systematic benefits associated with active learning in touchscreen-based word learning tasks. The current studies add to the evidence that educational apps need to be evaluated before release: While children might benefit from interactive apps under certain conditions, task design and requirements need to consider factors that may detract from successful performance.

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