Developmental differences in children’s context-dependent word learning

Vlach, Haley A.; Sandhofer, Catherine M.

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.09.011

Cited by 66 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(35 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…When 2-year-olds were presented with category exemplars on multiple varied fabrics and tested on a never before seen fabric, generalization was not different from chance levels (Goldenberg & Sandhofer, 2013; Vlach & Sandhofer, 2011). The support to decontextualize that aided 3- and 4-year-olds (learning across multiple varied contexts) was not sufficient to aid 2-year-olds when generalizing was tested in a new context.…”

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…When 2- and 3-year-old children were presented with category members one at a time in a distinct context (a colored and patterned fabric square on which the object was placed) and subsequently tested for generalization of the category label to a new category exemplar, performance was enhanced when training and testing took place in the same context (i.e., the same fabric) relative to a condition in which training and testing took place in different contexts (i.e., a new fabric; Vlach & Sandhofer, 2011). …”

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, participants tested by Vlach and Sandhofer (2011) may have associated the object-label pair with the fabric. When generalization performance was tested on a new fabric, the novice word learners had difficulty generalizing the object label to the new category exemplar at test because the fabric they had associated with the object-label pair during learning was not present (Goldenberg & Sandhofer, 2013).…”

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When 3- and 4-year-olds were presented with category exemplars across multiple varied contexts, for example, they were able to generalize the category label to a new exemplar in a new context (Vlach and Sandhofer, 2011), perhaps because variability helps decontextualize the learning process, increasing the likelihood that information can be generalized to new settings (Amabile & Rovee-Collier, 1991; Rovee-Collier & Dufault, 1991). Varied contexts, therefore, may signal to the child that the to-be-learned information (object-label pair) is not associated with any specific context.…”

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Children's category generalization is affected by surrounding contextual information (Vlach & Sandhofer, 2011). Past research suggests that young children have difficulty generalizing category labels in a new context when learning takes place in either all of the same background context, or all varied background contexts.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Category generalization in a new context: The role of visual attention

Goldenberg

Johnson

2015

Infant Behavior and Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Infants and children have difficulty categorizing objects in new contexts. However, learning in both same and varied contexts can help young word learners overcome contextual learning difficulties. We examined the relation between infants' visual attention to the category member and background context during learning and their ability to generalize a new category member in a new context. Of particular interest is how this relation is affected by learning in various contextual conditions. Infants (16-20 months; n=48) were presented with eight novel noun categories in one of three contextual conditions (same context, varied context, or a combination of same and varied context), and tested for their generalization abilities in a new context. Context was defined as the colored and patterned fabric upon which the object was presented. Results suggest that visual attention during learning is associated with category generalization abilities in a new context only for infants whose learning took place in a combination of same and varied background contexts. The results are discussed in terms of the mechanisms by which context affects generalization.

show abstract

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 1 Learning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Category generalization in a new context: The role of visual attention

Goldenberg

Johnson

2015

Infant Behavior and Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Toddler word learning is robust to changes in emotional context

Ogren

Sandhofer

2021

Infant and Child Development

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Word learning is a crucial aspect of early social and cognitive development, and previous research indicates that children's word learning is influenced by the context in which the word is spoken. However, the role of emotions as contextual cues to word learning remains less clear. This study investigated word learning among 2.5-year-old children in angry, happy, sad, and variable emotional contexts. Fifty-six children (30 female; mean age = 2.49 years) participated in a novel noun generalization task in which children observed an experimenter labelling objects in either a consistently angry, consistently happy, consistently sad, or variable (one exemplar per emotion) context. The children were then asked to identify the label-object association. The results revealed that children's performance was above chance levels for all four conditions (all t's > 3.68, all p's < .01), but performance did not significantly differ by condition (F [3,52] = 0.51, p = .677). These results provide valuable information regarding potential boundaries for when contextual information may versus may not influence children's word learning.

show abstract