Fast Mapping Across Time: Memory Processes Support Children's Retention of Learned Words.

Haley A Vlach,Catherine M Sandhofer

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00046

Abstract

Children’s remarkable ability to map linguistic labels to referents in the world is commonly called fast mapping. The current study examined children’s (N = 216) and adults’ (N = 54) retention of fast-mapped words over time (immediately, after a 1-week delay, and after a 1-month delay). The fast mapping literature often characterizes children’s retention of words as consistently high across timescales. However, the current study demonstrates that learners forget word mappings at a rapid rate. Moreover, these patterns of forgetting parallel forgetting functions of domain-general memory processes. Memory processes are critical to children’s word learning and the role of one such process, forgetting, is discussed in detail – forgetting supports extended mapping by promoting the memory and generalization of words and categories.

Highlights

One of the more remarkable developmental feats is the ease by which children appear to learn new words after the second year of life
We focus our investigation on examining children’s retention of fast-mapped words over extended periods of time in order to elucidate the memory processes supporting extended mapping and long-term word learning
Because participants forgot word mappings over time in Experiment 1, we proposed that domain-general memory mechanisms are involved in children’s long-term word learning

Summary

Introduction

One of the more remarkable developmental feats is the ease by which children appear to learn new words after the second year of life. Children’s ability to readily map words to referents in the world and retain these mappings over time, with only minimal exposure, is commonly called fast mapping (e.g., Carey and Bartlett, 1978; see Carey, 2010, for a review). Fast mapping behavior has often been described as having two phases: (1) the initial mapping of a linguistic label to a referent, and (2) the subsequent retention and development of the initial representation, originally termed “extended mapping” (Carey and Bartlett, 1978). We focus our investigation on examining children’s retention of fast-mapped words over extended periods of time (i.e., weeks and months) in order to elucidate the memory processes supporting extended mapping and long-term word learning

Methods

Results

Conclusion