Repeated checking has been demonstrated to lead to reductions in memory confidence in several previous studies using student and clinical samples. This process of reduced confidence in memory and detail for memory, are thought to arise from the inhibition of perceptual processing that develops during repeated checking. Our research investigated whether reduced memory confidence from repeated checking could be attenuated through the use of novel stimuli during the repeated checking task. Three groups were generated through random assignment of 65 undergraduate students. As seen in previous research, individuals who repeatedly checked a stimulus (a virtual stovetop) showed reduced memory confidence, vividness, and detail, when compared with individuals who repeatedly checked a different stimulus. A third group in which the colour of the repeatedly-checked stovetop changed every five trials showed no significant decline in memory confidence between the pre-test and post-test. Results suggest that increased memory distrust can be ameliorated through the use of stimuli with characteristics that are novel and distinctive. Findings are discussed in the context of the existing model of repeated checking and memory confidence, and implications for treatment methods are presented.
In order for children to understand and reason about the world in an adult-like fashion, they need to learn that conceptual categories are organized in a hierarchical fashion (e.g., a dog is also an animal). While children learn from their first-hand observation of the world, social knowledge transmission via language can also play an important role in this learning.Previous studies have documented several cues in parental talk that can help children learn about conceptual hierarchy. However, these studies have used different datasets and methods that have made it difficult to compare the relative usefulness of various linguistic cues to conceptual knowledge and to test whether they scale up to naturalistic speech. Here, we study a large-scale corpus of English child-directed speech -collected in North America and the UK -and used a unified classification-based evaluation method which allowed us to investigate and compare cues that vary in terms of how explicit the information they offer is.We found the more explicit cues to be too sparse or too noisy in child-directed speech, making them unlikely to support robust learning. In contrast, the implicit cues offered a more reliable source of information. Further, we investigated developmental changes from 3 to 6 years of age, and we found no differences in the availability of these cues in the input.Our work confirms the utility of caregiver talk for conveying conceptual information and supporting the development of early taxonomic knowledge. It provides a first step toward a cognitive model that would combine perceptual-and language-based mechanisms, leading to a more comprehensive account of children's conceptual development.
In order for children to understand and reason about the world in a mature fashion, they need to learn that conceptual categories are organized in a hierarchical fashion (e.g., a dog is also an animal). The caregiver linguistic input can play an important role in this learning, and previous studies have documented several cues in parental talk that can help children learn a conceptual hierarchy. However, these previous studies used different datasets and methods which made difficult the systematic comparison of these cues and the study of their relative contribution. Here, we use a large-scale corpus of child-directed speech and a classification-based evaluation method which allowed us to investigate, within the same framework, various cues that varied radically in terms of how explicit the information they offer is. We found the most explicit cues to be too sparse or too noisy to support robust learning (though part of the noise may be due to imperfect operationalization). In contrast, the implicit cues offered, overall, a reliable source of information. Our work confirms the utility of caregiver talk for conveying conceptual information. It provides a stepping stone towards a cognitive model that would use this information in a principled way, possibly leading to testable predictions about children's conceptual development.
In order for children to understand and reason about the world in an adult-like fashion, they need to learn that conceptual categories are organized in a hierarchical fashion (e.g., a dog is also an animal). The caregiver’s linguistic input can play an important role in this learning, and previous studies have documented several cues in parental talk that can help children learn the conceptual hierarchy. However, these previous studies used different datasets and methods which made difficult the systematic comparison of these cues and the study of their relative contribution. Here, we use a large-scale corpus of child-directed speech and a classification-based evaluation method which allowed us to investigate, within the same framework, various cues that vary radically in terms of how explicit the information they offer is. We found the most explicit cues to be too sparse or too noisy to support robust learning. In contrast, the implicit cues offered, overall, a reliable source of information. Our work confirms the utility of caregiver talk for conveying conceptual information. It provides a stepping stone towards a cognitive model that would use this information in a principled way, leading to testable predictions about children’s conceptual development.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.