Principles that are invoked in the acquisition of words, but not facts

Waxman, Sandra R.; Booth, Amy E.

doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(00)00103-7

Cited by 99 publications

(126 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The topic of fast mapping has attracted considerable attention (Behrend et al, 2001;Bloom, 2000;Bloom & Markson, 2001;Markson & Bloom, 1997;Waxman & Booth, 2000; see also Dickinson, 1984;Dollaghan, 1987;Heibeck & Markman, 1987). This interest stems in part from the idea that fast mapping may reflect a specialized mechanism for word learning-part of an overall human predisposition for language.…”

Section: Ease Of Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emergence of Words: Attentional Learning in Form and Meaning

2005

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Children improve at word learning during the 2nd year of life-sometimes dramatically. This fact has suggested a change in mechanism, from associative learning to a more referential form of learning. This article presents an associative exemplar-based model that accounts for the improvement without a change in mechanism. It provides a unified account of children's growing abilities to (a) learn a new word given only 1 or a few training trials ("fast mapping"); (b) acquire words that differ only slightly in phonological form; (c) generalize word meanings preferentially along particular dimensions, such as object shape (the "shape bias"); and (d) learn 2nd labels for already-named objects, despite a persisting resistance to doing so ("mutual exclusivity"). The model explains these improvements in terms of increased attention to relevant aspects of form and meaning, which reduces memory interference. The interaction of associations and reference in word learning is discussed.

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Section: Ease Of Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emergence of Words: Attentional Learning in Form and Meaning

2005

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“…While claims of learning just after a single exposure (Dollaghan, 1985) remain controversial, less so are suggestions that some dozens of trials may be sufficient for successful learning with further gain still possible through application of a behavioral routine containing up to 150 exposures within a short learning session (Pittman, 2008). Even more interestingly, while some experiments prompted suggestions of a unique human wordlearning mechanism (Waxman and Booth, 2000), others have argued that rapid word learning may efficiently exploit general neurobiological learning mechanisms that are not necessarily language-specific (Markson and Bloom, 1997;Bloom, 2002) and may even be shared with other species (Kaminski et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid Cortical Plasticity Underlying Novel Word Learning

Shtyrov¹,

Nikulin²,

Pulvermüller³

2010

J. Neurosci.

112

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Humans are unique in developing large lexicons as their communication tool. To achieve this, they are able to learn new words rapidly. However, neural bases of this rapid learning, which may be an expression of a more general cognitive mechanism, are not yet understood. To address this, we exposed our subjects to familiar words and novel spoken stimuli in a short passive perceptual learning session and compared automatic brain responses to these items throughout the learning exposure. Initially, we found enhanced activity for known words, indexing the ignition of their underlying memory traces. However, just after 14 min of learning exposure, the novel items exhibited a significant increase in response magnitude matching in size with that to real words. This activation increase, as we would like to propose, reflects rapid mapping of new word forms onto neural representations. Similar to familiar words, the neural activity subserving rapid learning of new word forms was generated in the left-perisylvian language cortex, especially anterior superior-temporal areas. This first report of a neural correlate of rapid learning suggests that our brain may effectively form new neuronal circuits online as it gets exposed to novel patterns in the sensory input. Understanding such fast learning is key to the neurobiological explanation of the human language faculty and learning mechanisms in general.

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“…Adults learn from exclusion choices as well, if not better, than children (Golinkoff et al, 1992;Markson & Bloom, 1997). Exclusion in children and adults is not limited to words, but may also be relevant to facts about objects (Markson & Bloom, 1997; but see Waxman & Booth, 2000). Finally, proficiency at choice by exclusion is not consistently related to vocabulary size in children (Byers-Heinlein & Werker, 2009), raising questions about the extent to which exclusion is a major contributor to word learning.…”

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confidence: 99%

Monkeys choose, but do not learn, through exclusion

Gazes¹,

Chee²,

Hampton³

2018

AB&C

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-Human children will select a novel object from among a group of known objects when presented with a novel object name. This disambiguation by exclusion may facilitate new name-object mappings and may play a role in the rapid word learning shown by young children. Animals including dogs, apes, monkeys, and birds make similar exclusion choices. However, evidence regarding whether children and nonhuman animals learn new associations through choice by exclusion is mixed. In the present study, we dissociate choice by exclusion from learning by exclusion in rhesus monkeys using a paired-associate task. In Experiment 1, monkeys demonstrated choice by exclusion by choosing a novel comparison image from among known comparison images when presented with a novel sample image. In Experiment 2, monkeys showed little if any benefit from choice by exclusion in learning new sets of paired associates. Monkeys were trained with new sets of four paired associates by trial and error alone or by a combination of exclusion and trial and error. Despite choosing correctly by exclusion on almost 100% of opportunities, monkeys did not learn any faster by exclusion than by trial and error alone. These results indicate that monkeys choose, but do not learn, through exclusion, highlighting the importance of separately evaluating choice and learning in studies of the role of exclusion in word learning.

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Principles that are invoked in the acquisition of words, but not facts

Cited by 99 publications

References 18 publications

The Emergence of Words: Attentional Learning in Form and Meaning

The Emergence of Words: Attentional Learning in Form and Meaning

Rapid Cortical Plasticity Underlying Novel Word Learning

Monkeys choose, but do not learn, through exclusion

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