Toddlers' Ability to Leverage Statistical Information to Support Word Learning.

Erica M Ellis,Jeffrey L Elman,Arielle Borovsky,Julia L Evans

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.600694

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigated whether the ability to utilize statistical regularities from fluent speech and map potential words to meaning at 18-months predicts vocabulary at 18- and again at 24-months.MethodEighteen-month-olds (N = 47) were exposed to an artificial language with statistical regularities within the speech stream, then participated in an object-label learning task. Learning was measured using a modified looking-while-listening eye-tracking design. Parents completed vocabulary questionnaires when their child was 18-and 24-months old.ResultsAbility to learn the object-label pairing for words after exposure to the artificial language predicted productive vocabulary at 24-months and amount of vocabulary change from 18- to 24 months, independent of non-verbal cognitive ability, socio-economic status (SES) and/or object-label association performance.ConclusionEighteen-month-olds’ ability to use statistical information derived from fluent speech to identify words within the stream of speech and then to map the “words” to meaning directly predicts vocabulary size at 24-months and vocabulary change from 18 to 24 months. The findings support the hypothesis that statistical word segmentation is one of the important aspects of word learning and vocabulary acquisition in toddlers.

Highlights

The course of typical vocabulary development varies tremendously between children (Fenson et al, 1994)
Data was examined to determine whether looking measures were related to vocabulary outcome data
We used regression analyses to explore whether looking differences predicted current and future vocabulary outcomes

Summary

Introduction

The course of typical vocabulary development varies tremendously between children (Fenson et al, 1994). By 12 months some children may only understand 20 words, while others understand more than 150, and this variability in receptive vocabulary persists and is echoed in productive vocabulary skills throughout toddlerhood. What accounts for these initial and ongoing differences in early lexical development? The infant must segment the auditory stimulus “that is such a cute doggie” into meaningful chunks to accurately link it to its referent (e.g., “doggie”). This ability to segment speech sounds into word-level units, termed “word segmentation,” is a critical part of the word learning process (Saffran and Kirkham, 2018)

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