The role of novelty in early word learning.
What mechanism implements the mutual exclusivity bias to map novel labels to objects without names? Prominent theoretical accounts of mutual exclusivity (e.g., Markman, 1989, 1990) propose that infants are guided by their knowledge of object names. However, the mutual exclusivity constraint could be...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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2012
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| _version_ | 1797079203740385280 |
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| author | Mather, E Plunkett, K |
| author_facet | Mather, E Plunkett, K |
| author_sort | Mather, E |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | What mechanism implements the mutual exclusivity bias to map novel labels to objects without names? Prominent theoretical accounts of mutual exclusivity (e.g., Markman, 1989, 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, and 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 name-known, 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:42:25Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:8384afd2-1e3b-435c-b1bd-bb558cdc4278 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:42:25Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:8384afd2-1e3b-435c-b1bd-bb558cdc42782022-03-26T21:44:37ZThe role of novelty in early word learning.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8384afd2-1e3b-435c-b1bd-bb558cdc4278EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2012Mather, EPlunkett, KWhat mechanism implements the mutual exclusivity bias to map novel labels to objects without names? Prominent theoretical accounts of mutual exclusivity (e.g., Markman, 1989, 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, and 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 name-known, 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. |
| spellingShingle | Mather, E Plunkett, K The role of novelty in early word learning. |
| title | The role of novelty in early word learning. |
| title_full | The role of novelty in early word learning. |
| title_fullStr | The role of novelty in early word learning. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The role of novelty in early word learning. |
| title_short | The role of novelty in early word learning. |
| title_sort | role of novelty in early word learning |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mathere theroleofnoveltyinearlywordlearning AT plunkettk theroleofnoveltyinearlywordlearning AT mathere roleofnoveltyinearlywordlearning AT plunkettk roleofnoveltyinearlywordlearning |