2-055 - From Initial Exposure to Retention: The Impact of Non-Linguistic and Linguistic Factors on Word Learning

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

During word learning, a child must map a word to its correct referent and retain that word-referent pair over time. Much previous work has elucidated the multiple factors that influence either initial word-referent mapping or retention. However, a critical issue is how the factors that influence initial mapping of a word and referent carry over time to influence subsequent recall of that mapping. The four talks in this symposium address this question, examining both non-linguistic and linguistic factors that drive children’s behavior during initial exposure to a word-referent pair, and how these factors affect retention and recall of that mapping at later points in time. The first two talks explore how children use non-linguistic information during initial exposure to a novel word. The first talk demonstrates how children’s spatial location aids in mapping word-referent pairs to create a robust foundation for later recall. The second talk establishes how children’s initial perceptual biases for object features are related to their later memory for those categories which aids in word learning. The third talk investigates the linguistic relationship between the strength of a child’s vocabulary knowledge and initial coding, finding a further correlation between vocabulary knowledge at initial exposure and later retention. The final talk integrates linguistic and non-linguistic factors by examining the specifics of long-term word learning and altering the features and conditions during initial exposure and delayed tests. Taken together, this symposium provides an important window to how factors during initial exposure determine the course of word learning over time.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chair

• Sarah C Kucker, University of Texas at Dallas

Individual Presentations

• The Impact of Spatial Coding on Word Learning in 17-20 and 27-30-Month-Old Children - Presenting Author: Megan Galligan Lorenz, University of Iowa; John P Spencer, University of Iowa; Larissa K Samuelson, University of Iowa

• Remembering Object Features Across Time: The Shape Bias as a Memory Bias - Presenting Author: Haley A Vlach, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Word Learning from Uncertainty in Vocabulary Knowledge - Presenting Author: Sarah C Kucker, University of Texas at Dallas; Bob McMurray, University of Iowa; Larissa K Samuelson, University of Iowa

• The Flexibility of Novel Word Representations Across Time - Presenting Author: Erica Wojcik, University of Wisconsin, Madison