Predictable Events Enhance Word Learning in Toddlers

Abstract

SUMMARY Sensitivity to the predictability of the environment supports young children’s learning in many domains [1, 2], including language [3–6]; perception [7, 8]; and the processing of objects, space, and time [1, 9]. Predictable regularities allow observers to generate expectations about upcoming events and to learn from violations of those expectations [10, 11]. Given the benefits of detecting both predictable and unpredictable events, a key question concerns which types of input facilitate learning in young children. In the current research, we assessed the effects of predictability on toddlers’ word learning by embedding word-learning moments within events that were either predicted or violated predictions. 2-year-olds observed a continuous visual sequence in which novel objects were revealed from one of four locations in a predictable spatiotemporal pattern (1, 2, 3, 4). Objects were then labeled either during events that were predicted by the sequence (1, 2, 3, 4) or events that violated the sequence (1, 2, 3, 2). Results from two studies revealed better word learning for objects labeled during predictable events than objects labeled during unpredictable events. These findings suggest that predictable events create advantageous learning moments for toddlers, with implications for the role played by predictable input in early development.

Non-Linguistic Grammar Learning by 12-Month-Old Infants: Evidence for Constraints on Learning

“…In line with previous research on predictable events (e.g., Bar, 2007;Benitez & Smith, 2012;Benitez & Saffran, 2018; see also Aslin, 2014), this evidence points to predictability as an important constraint on learning. Our findings suggest that even for nonlinguistic auditory structures, learning is facilitated when particular types of predictable patterns signal the structure of the input.…”

Statistical Language Learning in Infancy

“…Infant word learning is also influenced by the predictability of the events within which label‐object pairings are situated. A tradeoff is apparent, with a label attached to an extremely unpredictable event (e.g., a ball floating in the air) enhancing word learning (Stahl & Feigenson, ) and a label attached to a moderately unpredictable event (e.g., a violation of a visual sequence) hindering word learning (Benitez & Saffran, ). Thus, the statistical regularities of the environment, whether derived from actual experience or from training in a laboratory, affect infants’ expectations about what is likely to occur next, influencing the ease with which infants map labels onto the objects participating in those events.…”

Violations of Core Knowledge Shape Early Learning

“…Or their effect could be detrimental: Core knowledge violations might be so striking—because they violate deeply held beliefs about the workings of the world—that they instead disrupt further processing. Indeed, in at least some situations, children learn better from predictable events (visual sequences) than unpredicted events (Benitez & Saffran, ).…”