According to the complementary learning systems (CLS) account of word learning, novel words are rapidly acquired (learning system 1), but slowly integrated into the mental lexicon (learning system 2). This two-step learning process has been shown to apply to novel word forms. In this study, we investigated whether novel word meanings are also gradually integrated after acquisition by measuring the extent to which newly learned words were able to prime semantically related words at two different time points. In addition, we investigated whether modality at study modulates this integration process. Sixty-four adult participants studied novel words together with written or spoken definitions. These words did not prime semantically related words directly following study, but did so after a 24-hour delay. This significant increase in the magnitude of the priming effect suggests that semantic integration occurs over time. Overall, words that were studied with a written definition showed larger priming effects, suggesting greater integration for the written study modality. Although the process of integration, reflected as an increase in the priming effect over time, did not significantly differ between study modalities, words studied with a written definition showed the most prominent positive effect after a 24-hour delay. Our data suggest that semantic integration requires time, and that studying in written format benefits semantic integration more than studying in spoken format. These findings are discussed in light of the CLS theory of word learning.
In the present study, we aimed to playfully improve arithmetic fluency skills with a tablet game training. Participants were 103 grade 1 children from regular primary schools. The tablet game was tested with a pretest-posttest control group design, and consisted of a racing game environment in which the player competed against a virtual opponent by rapidly solving addition and subtraction problems up to 20. During the 5-week intervention, one group (n ¼ 52) practiced with the game while another group (n ¼ 51) continued regular education without the game. Before, directly after, and three months after the intervention, we applied an arithmetic test to measure simple addition and subtraction skills in both symbolic (Arabic; 4) and non-symbolic (dots; ::) number notations. The intervention group increased significantly more on dot-subtraction efficiency than the control group, an effect which was prominent directly after the intervention. Since i) dot-subtraction is considered to rely more on calculation than the other arithmetic types that we measured and ii) the dot problem-answer representations were not practiced during the intervention, our results suggest that the tablet game promoted arithmetic fluency by benefitting calculation efficiency rather than retrieval efficiency or the switch from calculation to retrieval.
It is well documented that emotionally arousing experiences are better remembered than mundane events. This is thought to occur through hippocampus-amygdala crosstalk during encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. Here we investigated whether emotional events (context) also cause a memory benefit for simultaneously encoded non-arousing contents and whether this effect persists after a delay via recruitment of a similar hippocampus-amygdala network. Participants studied neutral pictures (content) encoded together with either an arousing or a neutral sound (that served as context) in two study sessions three days apart. Memory was tested in a functional magnetic resonance scanner directly after the second study session. Pictures recognised with high confidence were more often thought to have been associated with an arousing than with a neutral context, irrespective of the veridical source memory. If the retrieved context was arousing, an area in the hippocampus adjacent to the amygdala exhibited heightened activation and this area increased functional connectivity with the parahippocampal gyrus, an area known to process pictures of scenes. These findings suggest that memories can be shaped by the retrieval act. Memory structures may be recruited to a higher degree when an arousing context is retrieved, and this may give rise to confident judgments of recognition for neutral pictures even after a delay.
Research in adults has shown that novel words are encoded rather swiftly but that their semantic integration occurs more slowly and that studying definitions presented in a written modality may benefit integration. It is unclear, however, how semantic integration proceeds in children, who (compared to adults) have more malleable brains and less reading knowledge. In this study, 68 Dutch‐speaking children studied novel words, together with their meanings presented orally or in writing. After 22 hours, children showed semantic priming effects for novel words, demonstrating semantic integration, but the amount of priming did not differ between the two study modalities. Thus, children appeared to integrate newly learned word meanings independently of the modality in which they studied the definitions. This implies that semantic integration in 10‐ to 13‐year‐olds can occur, as with adults, within 24 hours, but may be unaffected by the modality in which the meanings are studied.
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