The Role of Novelty in Early Word Learning

Abstract

What mechanism implements the mutual exclusivity bias to map novel labels to objects without names? Prominent theoretical accounts of mutual exclusivity (e.g., Markman, 1989Markman, , 1990 propose that infants are guided by their knowledge of object names. However, the mutual exclusivity constraint could be implemented via monitoring of object novelty (see Merriman, Marazita, & Jarvis, 1995). We sought to discriminate between these contrasting explanations across two preferential looking experiments with 22-month-olds. In Experiment 1, infants viewed three objects: one nameknown, two name-unknown. Of the two name-unknown objects, one was novel, and the other had been previously familiarized. The infants responded to hearing a novel label by increasing attention only to the novel, name-unknown object. In a second experiment in which the name-known object was absent, a novel label increased infants' attention to a novel object beyond baseline preference for novelty. The experiments provide clear evidence for a novelty-based mechanism. However, differences in the time course of disambiguation across experiments suggest that novelty processing may be influenced by contextual factors.

That's More Like It: Multiple Exemplars Facilitate Word Learning

“…Each child was presented with nine sets and saw each set once on a known name trial and once on a novel name trial for a total of 18 referent selection trials. Known name referent selection trials were included as a control to ensure that children were mapping the names to the targets and not simply mapping novelty to novelty (see also Horst, Samuelson, Kucker, & McMurray, ; Mather & Plunkett, ). Each set included two familiar objects (e.g.…”

Context and repetition in word learning

“…Previous research demonstrates that children have a endogenous bias to novelty (Horst et al, 2011b). Specifically, when presented with a novel word and no supportive information about the target referent (i.e., without known competitors), rather than responding randomly, children systematically link the novel word to the most novel object (see also, Mather and Plunkett, 2012). Importantly, this bias can be seen after as little as 2 min of exposure with previously novel objects.…”

Remembering New Words: Integrating Early Memory Development into Word Learning

“…In most cases, children had to pick out the correct referent from an array of objects that included the newly learned referent and several familiar referents. Recent studies have demonstrated that the saliency of novel objects significantly influences young children’s choices in comprehension tasks (Mather and Plunkett, 2012). When novelty is controlled for (by including foils that are equally as novel as the trained word), 2-year-olds do not show comprehension of newly mapped word after a 5-min delay in a pointing task (Horst and Samuelson, 2008; see also Kucker and Samuelson, 2011).…”