Word Learning and Retention in Overheard Speech: The Role of Attention

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Word learning research has focused on how children learn and retain words when they are directly addressed by a caregiver, but children learn words in indirect ways as well by paying attention to interactions that do not directly involve them (Akhtar et al., 2001). Learning from overheard speech requires children to direct their own attention to the observed interaction and children have been found to pay more attention to two adults engaged in an interaction rather than other distractors in the room (Akhtar, 2005). Research has shown that children learn words and pay attention to speakers in overheard contexts, retention of these words and the role attention plays in successful retention have not been examined.
Retention in word learning has been examined by presenting labeled objects spaced out in time to children, which allows for the forgetting of the label for the object and surface level features (Vlach et al., 2013). This forgetting, in turn, strengthens the mapping of the label to the object as children undergo a deeper retrieval process consequently aiding long-term retention. In addition, a positive correlation between children’s word comprehension and attention to the experimenters engaged in an interaction has been found in the overhearing literature indicating that attention is related to word learning in overheard contexts (Martinez-Sussman et al., 2011).
The current study examined whether monolingual, 24- to 35-month-olds retain novel labels for novel object exemplars (shape categories) in an overhearing context and the role that attention plays in successful retention. We hypothesized that children who overhear the objects and labels presented spaced out in time and tested after a delay will show better retention and longer durations of overt attention than children who overhear the objects and labels one after another. Children were randomized into two conditions: massed or spaced. In the massed condition, children were presented with eight labeled novel, object exemplars one at a time. In the spaced condition, children were presented with labeled, novel object exemplars with 15-second intervals in between each presentation. Children were tested after a two-minute delay in a forced choice task where they were asked to identify the novel object exemplar. The experimental sessions were videotaped and coded for children’s attention duration, defined as the time a child directed their attention to the experimenters presenting the objects, using Datavyu video coding software (Datavyu Team, 2014). Attention in the spaced condition was not coded during the 15-second intervals between each presentation.
Preliminary results (N = 17) suggest that children older than 30 months are learning better in the spaced condition. Therefore, implying both the overhearing condition and the spaced presentation of objects are too difficult of a learning situation for younger children to successfully acquire and retain information but may be beneficial for older children. In addition, children were binned into two groups based on below or above chance performance in the task. Results indicate that children in the spaced condition regardless of chance performance show less attention duration compared to children in the massed condition.

Authors

• Emily Neer, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Catherine Sandhofer, University of California - Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author