Process Of Word Learning Research Articles

For preschoolers, word knowledge falls on a continuum: A novel framework for capturing the incremental process of word learning

For preschoolers, word knowledge falls on a continuum: A novel framework for capturing the incremental process of word learning

Neural manifestation of L2 novel concept acquisition from multi-contexts via both episodic memory and semantic memory systems.

This study aims to examine the process of L2 novel word learning through the combination of episodic and semantic memory, and how the process differs between the formation of thematic and taxonomic relations. The major approach adopted was observing the neural effects of word learning, which is manifested in the N400 from event-related potentials (ERPs). Eighty-eight participants were recruited for the experiment. In the learning session, L2 contextual discourses related to novel words were learned by participants. In the testing session, discourses embedded with incongruous and congruous novel words in the final position were used for participants to judge the congruency which affected the N400 neural activity. The results showed that both recurrent and new-theme discourses elicited significant N400 effects, while taxonomic sentences did not. These results confirmed the formation of episodic and semantic memory during L2 new word learning, in which semantic memory was mainly supported by thematic relations.

Does the public know what researchers know? Perceived task difficulty impacts adults' intuitions about children's early word learning.

The present study examined adults' understanding of children's early word learning. Undergraduates, non-parents, parents, and Speech-Language Pathologists (N = 535, 74% female, 56% White) completed a survey with 11 word learning principles from the perspective of a preschooler. Questions tested key principles from early word learning research. For each question, participants were prompted to select an answer based on the perspective of a preschooler. Adults demonstrated aligned intuitions for all principles except those derived from domain-general theories, regardless of experience with language development (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 revealed that perceived difficulty of a task for a preschooler impacted adults' reasoning about word learning processes. Experiment 3 ruled out level of confidence and interest as mechanisms to explain the results. These results highlight disconnects in knowledge between the cognitive development research community and the general public. Therefore, efforts must be made to communicate scientific findings to the broader non-academic community, emphasizing children's ability to excel at word learning in the face of task difficulty.

Vocabulary and automatic attention: The relation between novel words and gaze dynamics in noun generalization.

Words direct visual attention in infants, children, and adults, presumably by activating representations of referents that then direct attention to matching stimuli in the visual scene. Novel, unknown, words have also been shown to direct attention, likely via the activation of more general representations of naming events. To examine the critical issue of how novel words and visual attention interact to support word learning we coded frame-by-frame the gaze of 17- to 31-month-old children (n = 66, 38 females) while generalizing novel nouns. We replicate prior findings of more attention to shape when generalizing novel nouns, and a relation to vocabulary development. However, we also find that following a naming event, children who produce fewer nouns take longer to look at the objects they eventually select and make more transitions between objects before making a generalization decision. Children who produce more nouns look to the objects they eventually select more quickly following the naming event and make fewer looking transitions. We discuss these findings in the context of prior proposals regarding children's few-shot category learning, and a developmental cascade of multiple perceptual, cognitive, and word-learning processes that may operate in cases of both typical development and language delay. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Examined how novel words guide visual attention by coding frame-by-frame where children look when asked to generalize novel names. Gaze patterns differed with vocabulary size: children with smaller vocabularies attended to generalization targets more slowly and did more comparison than those with larger vocabularies. Demonstrates a relationship between vocabulary size and attention to object properties during naming. This work has implications for looking-based tests of early cognition, and our understanding of children's few-shot category learning.

The growing gap: A study of sleep, encoding, and consolidation of new words in chronic traumatic brain injury

Word learning is an iterative and dynamic process supported by multiple neural and cognitive systems. Converging evidence from behavioral, cellular, and systems neuroscience highlights sleep as an important support for memory and word learning over time. In many lab-based word learning experiments, participants encode and subsequently retrieve newly learned words in a single session. These designs are inadequate to capture the full dynamic word learning process, making them less ecologically valid. Single timepoint studies also limit investigation of the role of behavioral and lifestyle factors, like sleep, in supporting word learning over time. Adults with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI), who commonly exhibit deficits in the memory systems that support word learning and report concomitant sleep disturbance, provide a unique opportunity to examine the link between memory, sleep, and word learning. Here we examined word learning over time and the influence of sleep on short- and long-term word recall in 50 adults with chronic moderate-severe TBI and 50 demographically matched neurotypical peers. We used a randomized within-participant crossover design to assess immediate encoding of new words and the consolidation of those words over time across intervals that did or did not involve sleep. Participants completed this study over the course of two weeks in their own homes to capture the iterative, dynamic process of real-world word learning. We also measured sleep in free living conditions using actigraphy throughout the experiment. Participants with TBI exhibited a word learning deficit that began at encoding and persisted across time. Critically, this deficit grew over the course of the week. The performance gap between groups was larger at the 1-week post-test than the immediate post-test, suggesting deficits in both encoding and consolidation of new words in individuals with TBI. Participants with and without TBI remembered more words when they slept after learning. Ecologically valid research designs that examine the relationship between memory, sleep, and word learning over time promise to advance mechanistic accounts of word learning and improve the long-term retention of new words in individuals with and without brain injury.

Do naps benefit novel word learning? Developmental differences and white matter correlates.

Memory representations of newly learned words undergo changes during nocturnal sleep, as evidenced by improvements in explicit recall and lexical integration (i.e., after sleep, novel words compete with existing words during online word recognition). Some studies have revealed larger sleep-benefits in children relative to adults. However, whether daytime naps play a similar facilitatory role is unclear. We investigated the effect of a daytime nap (relative to wake) on explicit memory (recall/recognition) and lexical integration (lexical competition) of newly learned novel words in young adults and children aged 10-12 years, also exploring white matter correlates of the pre- and post-nap effects of word learning in the child group with diffusion weighted MRI. In both age groups, a nap maintained explicit memory of novel words and wake led to forgetting. However, there was an age group interaction when comparing change in recall over the nap: children showed a slight improvement whereas adults showed a slight decline. There was no evidence of lexical integration at any point. Although children spent proportionally more time in slow-wave sleep (SWS) than adults, neither SWS nor spindle parameters correlated with over-nap changes in word learning. For children, increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the uncinate fasciculus and arcuate fasciculus were associated with the recognition of novel words immediately after learning, and FA in the right arcuate fasciculus was further associated with changes in recall of novel words over a nap, supporting the importance of these tracts in the word learning and consolidation process. These findings point to a protective role of naps in word learning (at least under the present conditions), and emphasize the need to better understand both the active and passive roles that sleep plays in supporting vocabulary consolidation over development.

Word Learning as a Window to Memory and Rehabilitation Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury.

The purpose of this viewpoint is to advocate for increased study of word learning abilities and word learning interventions in traumatic brain injury (TBI). We describe the word learning process and the unique opportunities afforded by studying each component and stage. Building on discussions at the 2022 International Cognitive-Communication Disorders Conference, we describe how word learning may underlie a variety of functional outcomes after TBI, making it a promising target for rehabilitation. Finally, we discuss principles that may guide study in this critical area to advance outcomes after TBI for children and adults. Word learning is a dynamic and iterative process taking place over time and in multiple stages. Thus, studying word learning affords the opportunity to parse the relative contributions of multiple memory systems to different phases and components of the process. However, single-timepoint designs are insufficient to capture the full word learning process, which occurs over time and across contexts. Word learning also presents an opportunity to assess the contributions of behavioral and lifestyle factors (e.g., sleep and exercise) to different memory phases. Understanding these interactions could drive clinical interventions aimed at improving memory through manipulable external behaviors. Word learning is key to success in functional spheres across the life span. The importance of words to daily life remains after TBI, even as the memory systems that support word learning are disrupted. The empirical study of word learning and rehabilitation of word learning deficits in TBI presents a promising new direction in understanding the breadth of neurogenic cognitive-communication disorders and an opportunity to explore a potential driver of functional outcome and impactful rehabilitation target.

Exploring Real-Time Word Learning Skills and Its Related Factors in Preschool Children: An Eye-Tracking Study

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the real-time word learning processing aspects of children in each group by classifying groups according to their actual vocabulary acquisition performance (offline processing data) in QUIL (Quick incidental learning). We compared whether there was a significant difference between the QUIL offline and online processing data of the two groups, and finally we attempted to explore whether QUIL offline and online processing data had a significant correlation with children’s working memory. Methods: Thirty-three children [21 with TD (Typically developing children); and 12 with SLI (Children with specific language impairment)] aged 3- to 6-year-old participated in this study. K-mean cluster analysis was conducted to create new groups based on QUIL offline scores, and to examine children’s online word learning processing. To analyze the children’s word learning process with an eye-tracker, the animations recorded with narration were shown to the children through a computer with an eye-tracker attached. Results: There was a significant difference between the two clusters at the third exposure condition in online data (fixation duration). In addition, there was a significant correlation between QUIL online processing and linguistic WM (Working memory) in cluster 1, and between QUIL offline scores and nonlinguistic WM in cluster 2. Conclusion: When new vocabulary is exposed for cluster 2, it can be inferred that the efficiency of vocabulary acquisition will be improved if visual information is intensively combined with language information.

The impact of perceived emotions on toddlers' word learning.

Others' emotional expressions affect individuals' attention allocation in social interactions, which are integral to the process of word learning. However, the impact of perceived emotions on word learning is not well understood. Two eye-tracking experiments investigated 78 British toddlers' (37 girls) of 29- to 31-month-old retention of novel label-object and emotion-object associations after hearing labels presented in neutral, positive, and negative affect in a referent selection task. Overall, toddlers learned novel label-object associations regardless of the affect associated with objects but showed an attentional bias toward negative objects especially when emotional cues were presented (d=0.95), suggesting that identifying the referent to a label is a competitive process between retrieval of the learned label-object association and the emotional valence of distractors.

Efficacy of an integrated intervention with vocabulary and phonetic training for Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorders

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate deficits in vocabulary development and novel word learning processes, which have been proposed to stem from their speech perception deficits. Aims: This study had two aims. The first was to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention incorporating a computer-based phonetic training programme with rich and explicit vocabulary instruction. The second aim was to investigate the adjuvant treatment effect of phonetic training on word learning performance. Methods and procedures: The experimental group comprised 34 children with DLD aged 5–7 years, and the control group comprised another 15 children with DLD. All participants in the experimental group attended 1-h direct vocabulary instruction classes weekly for 9 weeks. They were also asked to play computer-based phonetic training games individually at home or school. Pre-post differences between groups in word definition and speech perception tasks were examined. The relationship between the experimental group's vocabulary learning performance and scores on the phonetic training games was examined using correlation analysis. Results: Between-group comparisons revealed that children in the experimental group exhibited significantly greater pre-post gains in word definition task than did the control group. Children in the experimental group performed better in the lexical tone posttest No improvement in the speech discrimination tasks was detected in the control group. Finally, correlation analyses indicated a positive relationship between the total number of phonetic games played and the pre-post gain in the word definition production task. The children's response accuracy in the lexical tone discrimination games was significantly correlated with the performance of the posttest tone discrimination task and the pre-post gain in the word definition task. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that vocabulary intervention programmes incorporating speech perception training promote children's vocabulary and speech perception abilities. These findings can serve as evidence to support future school-based studies.

Shared Multimodal Input Through Social Coordination: Infants With Monolingual and Bilingual Learning Experiences.

A growing number of children in the United States are exposed to multiple languages at home from birth. However, relatively little is known about the early process of word learning—how words are mapped to the referent in their child-centered learning experiences. The present study defined parental input operationally as the integrated and multimodal learning experiences as an infant engages with his/her parent in an interactive play session with objects. By using a head-mounted eye tracking device, we recorded visual scenes from the infant’s point of view, along with the parent’s social input with respect to gaze, labeling, and actions of object handling. Fifty-one infants and toddlers (aged 6–18 months) from an English monolingual or a diverse bilingual household were recruited to observe the early multimodal learning experiences in an object play session. Despite that monolingual parents spoke more and labeled more frequently relative to bilingual parents, infants from both language groups benefit from a comparable amount of socially coordinated experiences where parents name the object while the object is looked at by the infant. Also, a sequential path analysis reveals multiple social coordinated pathways that facilitate infant object looking. Specifically, young children’s attention to the referent objects is directly influenced by parent’s object handling. These findings point to the new approach to early language input and how multimodal learning experiences are coordinated socially for young children growing up with monolingual and bilingual learning contexts.

Are translation equivalents special? Evidence from simulations and empirical data from bilingual infants

The acquisition of translation equivalents is often considered a special component of bilingual children's vocabulary development, as bilinguals have to learn words that share the same meaning across their two languages. This study examined three contrasting accounts for bilingual children's acquisition of translation equivalents relative to singlets (i.e., words that are first labels for a referent): the Avoidance Account whereby translation equivalents are harder to learn, the Preference Account whereby translation equivalents are easier to learn, and the Neutral Account whereby translation equivalents and singlets are learned similarly. To adjudicate between these accounts, Study 1 explored patterns of translation equivalent learning under a novel computational model — the Bilingual Vocabulary Model — which quantifies translation equivalent knowledge as a function of the probability of learning words in each language, and includes a bias parameter that varies the difficulty of learning translation equivalents according to each account. Study 2 tested model-derived predictions against vocabulary data from 200 French–English bilingual children aged 18–33 months. Results showed a close match between the model predictions and bilingual children's patterns of translation equivalent learning. At smaller vocabulary sizes, data matched the Preference Account, while at larger vocabulary sizes they matched the Neutral Account. Our findings show that patterns of translation equivalent learning emerge predictably from the word learning process, and potentially reveal a qualitative shift in translation equivalent learning as bilingual children develop and learn more words.

Subjective confidence influences word learning in a cross-situational statistical learning task

Learning is often accompanied by a subjective sense of confidence in one’s knowledge, a feeling of knowing what you know and how well you know it. Subjective confidence has been shown to guide learning in other domains, but has received little attention so far in the word learning literature. Across three word learning experiments, we investigated whether and how a sense of confidence in having acquired a word meaning influences the word learning process itself. First, we show evidence for a confirmation bias during word learning in a cross-situational statistical learning task: Learners who are highly confident they know the meaning of a word are more likely to persist in their belief than learners who are not, even after observing objective evidence disconfirming their belief. Second, we show that subjective confidence in a word meaning modulates inferential processes based on that word, affecting learning over the whole lexicon: Learners who hold high confidence in a word meaning are more likely to use that word to make mutual exclusivity inferences about the meaning of other words. We conclude that confidence influences word learning by modulating both information selection processes and inferential processes and discuss the implications of these results for word learning models.

Bilingual’s Advantages of not Using Mutual Exclusivity

It is a known fact that monolingual children will take advantage of the principle of mutual exclusivity (ME) in the process of early word learning, i.e., the names of two different objects are mutually exclusive (one label for one referent). With the help of ME, they can expand their vocabulary effectively with a rapid speed. However, for bilingual children, it seems this principle is not that friendly to them, since they are exposed to two languages at the same time, so there could be at least two labels for the same referent. Hence bilingual children may be confused and encounter difficulties in learning words, which will slower their word learning process. This paper tries to, based on earlier research, probe into the question that how bilingual children acquire words without the help of ME, and explore whether there are advantages of not using ME in word learning for bilingual children.

Use of mobile applications in collocation teaching

In this study, the importance of vocabulary knowledge in language education and the use of mobile applications in the teaching of collocations are emphasized. The application of collocation was realized through a mobile instant messaging application. It has been determined that students use a mobile application in a word learning process to provide more meaningful learning than in classroom learning. In this study, which was applied to 54 people using experimental and controls grouped research design, the experimental group was given mobile cards and the control group was given word cards in the class. In quantitative aspect, the study aimed to see the difference between the academic achievements of both group. At the end of the process, an academic achievement test was applied to the students, and a significant difference was found between the groups in favor of the experimental group. In qualitative aspect, the students opinions was given on use of mobile applications in teaching vocabulary. Individual interviews were conducted with the students at the end of the process accordingly and these interviews were used in the evaluation of the process.
 
 Keywords: Educational technology; language learning, mobile learning; teaching collocations.

Using Context as an Assist in Word Solving: The Contributions of 25 Years of Research on the Interactive Strategies Approach.

Recently, there has been growing concern about how to most effectively support the literacy development of beginning and struggling readers with regard to helping them learn to effortlessly identify the huge number of words that proficient readers ultimately learn to read with automaticity. Some, noting the critical importance of phonics instruction in learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, take the position that students should attend only to alphabetic information in word-solving attempts. However, long-standing theories of the development of word-reading skills support the value of teaching students to use both alphabetic and contextual information in word solving in interactive and confirmatory ways. The authors summarize 25 years of research in which beginning and struggling readers were taught to use both code- and meaning/context-based strategies for word solving and were provided with explicit, responsive instruction focused on the alphabetic code. The authors present brief summaries of theoretical explanations of the word-learning process. Then, the authors summarize six experimental studies that, together, included students in kindergarten through fourth grade and involved the implementation of the Interactive Strategies Approach in the primary grades and an extension of the approach with middle elementary students with reading difficulties. The studies resulted in substantially improved reading outcomes among treatment versus business-as-usual groups. The authors contend that using both phonics- and context-based information facilitates the ability to build sight vocabulary, which in turn enables readers to turn their attention to the most important goal of literacy learning: meaning construction.

Within and Across Language Predictors of Word Learning Processes in Dual Language Learners.

This study investigated the relation between Dual Language Learners' (N=90) vocabulary and grammar comprehension and word learning processes in preschool (aged 3-through-5years). Of interest was whether: (a) performance in Spanish correlated with performance in English within each domain; and (b) comprehension predicted novel word learning within and across languages. Dual-language experience was evaluated as a potential moderator. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed stronger predictive associations within each language than across languages. Across languages, results varied by experience and domain. Structural sensitivity theory suggests exposure to two languages heightens awareness of parameters along which languages vary and provides a framework for interpreting complex associations within and across languages. Knowledge from one language may influence learning in both.

The Growth of Children's Semantic and Phonological Networks: Insight From 10 Languages.

Children tend to produce words earlier when they are connected to a variety of other words along the phonological and semantic dimensions. Though these semantic and phonological connectivity effects have been extensively documented, little is known about their underlying developmental mechanism. One possibility is that learning is driven by lexical network growth where highly connected words in the child's early lexicon enable learning of similar words. Another possibility is that learning is driven by highly connected words in the external learning environment, instead of highly connected words in the early internal lexicon. The present study tests both scenarios systematically in both the phonological and semantic domains across 10 languages. We show that phonological and semantic connectivity in the learning environment drives growth in both production- and comprehension-based vocabularies, even controlling for word frequency and length. This pattern of findings suggests a word learning process where children harness their statistical learning abilities to detect and learn highly connected words in the learning environment.

KELİME ÖĞRENME SÜRECİNİ ETKİLEYEN FAKTÖRLERİN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

Vocabulary learning covers a process that continues throughout the life of a person. Circumstances that the people are in affect this learning. People who grow up in different circumstances have different vocabulary. In this study, factors affecting the word learning process were evaluated. In this context, factors affecting the vocabulary learning process were determined, and studies conducted in the literature on how and to what extent these factors affect vocabulary were examined. Factors were stated as socioeconomic and sociocultural status, gender, number of families and siblings, intelligence, interests and enriched environment. It was concluded that the effect of each factor on vocabulary learning process is different. Accordingly, it was determined that the socioeconomic and sociocultural situation, the number of children in the family, the attitudes and behaviors of the parents significantly affect the vocabulary of the child. It was observed that vocabulary knowledge increased as the interest of children increased in different fields. It was also concluded that gender does not have a significant effect on vocabulary, but causes the words in the vocabulary to differ. It was observed that intelligence directly affects the vocabulary, and the type of intelligence determines which field to learn more. In addition, listening to radio programs with accurate and effective speeches, watching qualified and child-specific television programs, living in a house full of books, being with more stimulus and social life, were found to accelerate children's language development and enrich the vocabulary.

Word learning from context in school-age children: relations with language ability and executive function.

Purpose: Although school-age children learn most new word meanings from surrounding context, the joint roles of language ability and executive function (EF) in the word learning process remain unclear. This study examined children's acquisition of word meanings from context in relation to oral language ability and three EF skills (working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility). Method: Typically developing school-age children completed measures of language and EF, then read and listened to short stories containing unfamiliar target words. A multiple-choice pretest-posttest measure assessed children's target word knowledge gains. Results: Regression analyses showed that language and cognitive flexibility were both related to word knowledge gains; each skill assumed greater importance among children with relative weakness in the other skill. Conclusion: Language ability and cognitive flexibility may each play a direct role in contextual word learning among school-age children, with children naturally relying on one skill if the other is weaker.