Statistical regularities shape semantic organization throughout development

Abstract

Our knowledge about the world is represented not merely as a collection of concepts, but as an organized lexico-semantic network in which concepts can be linked by relations, such as "taxonomic" relations between members of the same stable category (e.g., cat and sheep), or association between entities that occur together or in the same context (e.g., sock and foot). To date, accounts of the origins of semantic organization have largely overlooked how sensitivity to statistical regularities ubiquitous in the environment may play a powerful role in shaping semantic development. The goal of the present research was to investigate how associations in the form of statistical regularities with which labels for concepts co-occur in language (e.g., sock and foot) and taxonomic relatedness (e.g., sock and pajamas) shape semantic organization of 4-5-year-olds and adults. To examine these aspects of semantic organization across development, we conducted three experiments examining effects of co-occurrence and taxonomic relatedness on cued recall (Experiment 1), word-picture matching (Experiment 2), and looking dynamics in a Visual World paradigm (Experiment 3). Taken together, the results of the three experiments provide evidence that co-occurrence-based links between concepts manifest in semantic organization from early childhood onward, and are increasingly supplemented by taxonomic links. We discuss these findings in relation to theories of semantic development.

Structural Differences of the Semantic Network in Adolescents with Intellectual Disability

“…Wulff et al [1] proposed learning as another component that is vital for the mental lexicon. As laid out in the Introduction, statistical learning is of importance for the development of the semantic network (see: [16]). A less developed semantic lexicon for adolescents with ID could be explained by reduced statistical learning ability.…”

“…See Figure 1 for visual representation of the three measures. It has been argued that the structure of the semantic network might be the result of statistical learning, a process where taxonomic categories are formed based on co-occurrence regularities [16]. Evidence suggests that statistical learning is apparent in children as young as 4-5 years of age [16].…”

“…In addition, Thiessen et al [21] suggest that the outcome of statistical learning changes during development as a function of experience and the maturity of the learner. Thus, it would be reasonable to assume that the ID population It has been argued that the structure of the semantic network might be the result of statistical learning, a process where taxonomic categories are formed based on cooccurrence regularities [16]. Evidence suggests that statistical learning is apparent in children as young as 4-5 years of age [16].…”

“…Thus, it would be reasonable to assume that the ID population It has been argued that the structure of the semantic network might be the result of statistical learning, a process where taxonomic categories are formed based on cooccurrence regularities [16]. Evidence suggests that statistical learning is apparent in children as young as 4-5 years of age [16]. A prerequisite for statistical learning is that the similarities between contexts are detected and understood by the child, i.e., an ability to implicitly match patterns.…”

Comparing the semantic networks of children with cochlear implants and children with typical hearing: Effects of length of language access.

“…Statistical learning has been suggested to be an important cognitive skill for this (Erickson & Thiessen, 2015;Kidd et al, 2018). Unger (2020) found that statistic regularities in the language input are used to group words into categories. Words that occur within the same context are likely to belong to the same category.…”