ERIC Number: EJ1415398
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: EISSN-1939-0599
A Changing Role for Transitional Probabilities in Word Learning during the Transition to Toddlerhood?
Jill Lany; Ferhat Karaman; Jessica F. Hay
Developmental Psychology, v60 n3 p567-581 2024
Infants' sensitivity to transitional probabilities (TPs) supports language development by facilitating mapping high-TP (HTP) words to meaning, at least up to 18 months of age. Here we tested whether this HTP advantage holds as lexical development progresses, and infants become better at forming word--referent mappings. Two groups of 24-month-olds (N = 64 and all White, tested in the United States) first listened to Italian sentences containing HTP and low-TP (LTP) words. We then used HTP and LTP words, and sequences that violated these statistics, in a mapping task. Infants learned HTP and LTP words equally well. They also learned LTP violations as well as LTP words, but learned HTP words better than HTP violations. Thus, by 2 years of age sensitivity to TPs does not lead to an HTP advantage but rather to poor mapping of violations of HTP word forms.
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Infants, Toddlers, Semantics, Cognitive Processes, English Language Learners, Italian, Cognitive Mapping
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (DHHS/NIH); National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01HD083312; 1352443