Unger, Layla, Chang, Tyler, Savic, Olivera et al. (2 more authors) (2024) When is a word in good company for learning? Developmental Science. ISSN 1363-755X
Abstract
Although identifying the referents of single words is often cited as a key challenge for getting word learning off the ground, it overlooks the fact that young learners consistently encounter words in the context of other words. How does this company help or hinder word learning? Prior investigations into early word learning from children’s real-world language input have yielded conflicting results, with some influential findings suggesting an advantage for words that keep a diverse company of other words, and others suggesting the opposite. Here, we sought to triangulate the source of this conflict, comparing different measures of diversity and approaches to controlling for correlated effects of word frequency across multiple languages. The results were striking: while different diversity measures on their own yielded conflicting results, once nonlinear relationships with word frequency were controlled, we found convergent evidence that contextual consistency supports early word learning.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©2024 The Authors. |
Keywords: | word learning,context diversity,language acquisition,lexical acquisition |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 27 Mar 2024 10:50 |
Last Modified: | 17 Dec 2024 00:27 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13510 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/desc.13510 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:210921 |
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