Summary information
Study title
Turning novel words into known words: why ostensive naming facilitates children's word learning via fast mapping
Creator
Horst, J, University of Sussex
Study number / PID
850709 (UKDA)
10.5255/UKDA-SN-850709 (DOI)
Data access
Restricted
Series
Not available
Abstract
The ability understand others and to be understood is a complex challenge for children. This research examines the mechanisms that support successful word learning in young children.
Children are very good at forming a rough idea of what a new word means. For example, if shown a book and a novel electronic gadget and asked for the 'iPod' young children use process-of-elimination to link 'iPod' to the gadget. However, this is just the beginning. To really learn words children must form strong memories of the words and their meanings. Recently, we demonstrated that children only learn from process-of-elimination if ostensive naming is used. Ostensive naming involves naming something by making it very obvious what the word refers to, usually by holding up and pointing to the target object. This research builds on this finding and explores which aspects of ostensive naming make it so helpful. Experiment 1 explores highlighting the target object and decreasing children's attention to all other objects. Experiment 2 explores the distances between the objects when they are being named. Overall this research will increase our understanding of mechanisms that support early word learning, when children are already speaking but still have a lot to learn.
Topics
Keywords
Methodology
Data collection period
02/05/2011 - 01/09/2012
Country
United Kingdom
Time dimension
Not availableAnalysis unit
Household
Individual
Universe
Not availableSampling procedure
Not availableKind of data
Numeric
Data collection mode
General Methods: Children were tested individually at the lab with their parents seated next to them. As in previous studies (e.g. Horst & Samuelson, 2008) children received warm-up trials to become familiar with the task. Then, children were presented with referent selection (AKA fast mapping) trials. On referent selection trials children saw two known objects (e.g. stuffed dog, toy car) and one novel object (e.g. birdtoy). Across trials children were asked for both novel and known names to ensure they were responding to the requested names and not simply to novelty. To correctly choose the novel object in response to a novel name, children could use process-of-elimination (‘fode’ cannot refer to the dog or the car because those are called something else).Finally, all children were presented with retention trials to test if they learned the novel names. On these trials children saw only novel objects, each of which had been a target during the referent selection trials. To correctly choose the novel targets on these trials, children needed to have learned the name-object associations (and remembered them after a short delay).Children’s proportion of correct choices were compared against chance (1/3) and between groups. At least 12 children participated in each condition, as in previous studies (e.g. Horst, Scott & Pollard, 2010).
Funding information
Grant number
RES-000-22-4451
Access
Publisher
UK Data Service
Publication year
2013
Terms of data access
The Data Collection is available for download to users registered with the UK Data Service.
Related publications
Not available