Mine, Mine, Mine: Self-Reference and Children's Retention of Novel Words.

Emma L Axelsson,Rachelle L Dawson,Sharon Y Yim,Tashfia Quddus

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00958

Emma L Axelsson, Rachelle L Dawson + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00958

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Abstract

Adults demonstrate enhanced memory for words encoded as belonging to themselves compared to those belonging to another. Known as the self-reference effect, there is evidence for the effect in children as young as three. Toddlers are efficient in linking novel words to novel objects, but have difficulties retaining multiple word-object associations. The aim here was to investigate the self-reference ownership paradigm on 3-year-old children’s retention of novel words. Following exposure to each of four novel word-object pairings, children were told that objects either belonged to them or another character. Children demonstrated significantly higher immediate retention of self-referenced compared to other-referenced items. Retention was also tested 4 h later and the following morning. Retention for self- and other-referenced words was significantly higher than chance at both delayed time points, but the difference between the self- and other-referenced words was no longer significant. The findings suggest that when it comes to toddlers’ retention of multiple novel words there is an initial memory enhancing effect for self- compared to other-referenced items, but the difference diminishes over time. Children’s looking times during the self-reference presentations were positively associated with retention of self-referenced words 4 h later. Looking times during the other-reference presentations were positively associated with proportional looking at other-referenced items during immediate retention testing. The findings have implications for children’s memory for novel words and future studies could test children’s explicit memories for the ownership manipulation itself and whether the effect is superior to other forms of memory supports such as ostensive naming.

Highlights

Children are regularly exposed to novel words and objects, and the apparent speed at which toddlers acquire words belies the complex and remarkable process of encoding and retaining novel words
The median accuracy was significantly higher than chance (0.33), U = 276.00, p < 0.001, r = 0.96, indicating that children could successfully point to the targets in response to the audio
Retention of self- compared to other-referenced items was significantly higher at the immediate retention test

Summary

Introduction

Children are regularly exposed to novel words and objects, and the apparent speed at which toddlers acquire words belies the complex and remarkable process of encoding and retaining novel words. Children are not always explicitly told the labels for objects, but when presented with a novel object in the context of familiar objects, children tend to link a novel word with a novel object (Carey, 1978). One term for this is fast mapping and despite children’s speed and accuracy at fast mapping (Mervis and Bertrand, 1994; Halberda, 2003), they demonstrate difficulty in remembering novel word-object associations when there are multiple novel words. Other types of memory supports can enhance children’s retention of recently fast-mapped words such as enhancing attention to the target when it is renamed (Axelsson et al, 2012), making the target object more salient (Vlach and Sandhofer, 2012), or repeating the target word several times (Gurteen et al, 2011)

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