The role of novelty in word learning

新奇感在单词学习中的作用

• 批准号: BB/E007406/1
• 负责人: Kim Plunkett
• 金额: $ 38.35万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FE007406%2F1
• 关键词: role; novelty; word; learning

The ability to use one's knowledge of an object's name to infer that a novel word might mean something else is a potentially powerful tool for vocabulary acquisition. It is particularly useful in the context where a word learner is confronted with two objects, one name-known and the other nameless, and then hears a novel label, offering the learner the opportunity to infer that the novel word refers to the previously nameless object. When and how do young infants come to understand that a novel label is a candidate name for a nameless object in such situations? Previous research does not provide a clear answer to these questions: Some researchers argue that this word learning strategy is available at the very outset of word learning whereas others have argued that it takes a long time to master - well into the child's third year. Researchers have not provided an explanation of how this ability might be mastered. The proposed research aims to tackle both of these questions by testing infants under tightly controlled laboratory conditions using a preferential looking procedure. Infants will sit on their caregivers lap in front of two pictures. One picture will depict a familiar object whose name is known to the infant (as judged by a parental questionnaire). The other object will be novel. The infant will hear a command over a loudspeaker instructing them to 'Look at the XXX' where XXX is a novel label such as 'wug'. During the presentation of the images, we will monitor the infants fixations of the two pictures using a precise eye-tracking device. We want to know whether the infant will show a preference for the novel object and form an association between the novel label and the novel object. We will test this by providing the infant with opportunities to learn two novel object-label associations in this way and then presenting them with both novel objects and one of the novel labels and measuring whether they demonstrate a looking preference for the newly-named object when they hear its label. Infants will be tested at 14 months, 19 months and 24 months in order to identify the age at which this strategy for learning new word is mastered. We will then use the youngest age group to investigate how they master this skill. The central idea behind this research programme is that infants exploit the relative novelty of objects and labels to learn new object-label associations. However, there are two ways that novelty might play a role in word learning: Firstly, the relative novelty of nameless objects in the presence of a name-known object may determine the outcome of the word learning process. To test this possibility, two nameless objects which differ in novelty from each other will be presented with a name-known object. We predict that infants will associate the novel word with the completely novel object. Secondly, the relative novelty of objects themselves may be sufficient to trigger word learning because infants pay more attention to novel objects. If they hear a novel word at the same time as viewing two nameless objects, then infants may come to associate the more novel object with the novel word. A positive outcome would indicate an important role for novelty in the process of word learning. We will use the preferential looking task to test the role of novelty for word learning in both of these situations.

利用对物体名称的了解来推断新词可能意味着其他东西的能力是词汇习得的潜在强大工具。当单词学习者面对两个物体（一个是已知的，另一个是无名的），然后听到一个新标签时，它特别有用，为学习者提供了推断新单词指的是先前无名物体的机会。在这种情况下，小婴儿何时以及如何理解新标签是无名物体的候选名称？先前的研究并未对这些问题提供明确的答案：一些研究人员认为，这种单词学习策略在单词学习之初就可以使用，而另一些研究人员则认为需要很长时间才能掌握 - 直到孩子的第三年。研究人员尚未解释如何掌握这种能力。拟议的研究旨在通过使用优先观察程序在严格控制的实验室条件下测试婴儿来解决这两个问题。婴儿将坐在看护者的腿上，面前是两张照片。一张图片将描绘一个熟悉的物体，婴儿知道其名字（根据父母调查问卷判断）。另一个对象将是新颖的。婴儿将通过扬声器听到命令，指示他们“看 XXX”，其中 XXX 是一个新颖的标签，例如“wug”。在图像呈现过程中，我们将使用精确的眼球追踪设备来监测婴儿对两张图片的注视情况。我们想知道婴儿是否会表现出对新奇物体的偏好，并在新奇标签和新奇物体之间形成关联。我们将通过为婴儿提供机会以这种方式学习两种新颖的物体-标签关联来测试这一点，然后向他们展示新颖的物体和其中一个新颖的标签，并测量他们在听到新命名的物体时是否表现出对新命名的物体的外观偏好。婴儿将在 14 个月、19 个月和 24 个月时接受测试，以确定掌握这种学习新单词策略的年龄。然后我们将使用最小的年龄组来调查他们如何掌握这项技能。该研究项目背后的中心思想是婴儿利用物体和标签的相对新颖性来学习新的物体-标签关联。然而，新颖性可能通过两种方式在单词学习中发挥作用：首先，在已知名称的对象存在的情况下，无名对象的相对新颖性可能决定单词学习过程的结果。为了测试这种可能性，两个新颖性不同的无名对象将与一个已知名称的对象一起呈现。我们预测婴儿会将新奇的单词与完全新奇的物体联系起来。其次，物体本身的相对新颖性可能足以引发单词学习，因为婴儿更关注新奇物体。如果他们在看到两个无名物体的同时听到一个新词，那么婴儿可能会将更新奇的物体与新词联系起来。积极的结果表明新颖性在单词学习过程中发挥着重要作用。我们将使用优先查找任务来测试新颖性在这两种情况下对单词学习的作用。

项目成果

Mutual exclusivity and phonological novelty constrain word learning at 16 months.

相互排他性和语音新颖性限制了 16 个月时的单词学习。

• DOI: 10.1017/s0305000910000401
• 发表时间: 2011
• 期刊: Journal of child language
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Mather E

Same items, different order: Effects of temporal variability on infant categorization

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.02.008
• 发表时间: 2011-06-01
• 期刊: COGNITION
• 影响因子: 3.4
• 作者: Mather, Emily;Plunkett, Kim
• 通讯作者: Plunkett, Kim

Novel labels support 10-month-olds' attention to novel objects.

新奇的标签有助于 10 个月大的孩子对新奇物体的注意力。

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2009.11.004
• 发表时间: 2010
• 期刊: Journal of experimental child psychology
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Mather E