The Shape of the Vocabulary Predicts the Shape of the Bias

Frontiers in Psychology

Lynn K. Perry¹ 

关键词: word learning;    categorization;    individual differences;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00345

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Children acquire attentional biases that help them generalize novel words to novel objects. Researchers have proposed that these biases arise from regularities in the early noun vocabulary children learn and suggest that the specifics of the biases should be tied to the specifics of individual children’s vocabularies. However, evidence supporting this proposal to date comes from studies of group means. The current study examines the relations between the statistics of the nouns young children learn and the similarities and differences in the biases they demonstrate. We show that individual differences in vocabulary structure predict individual differences in novel noun generalization. Thus, these data support the proposal that word learning biases emerge from the regularities present in individual children’s vocabularies and, importantly, that children’s on-line attention during an experiment is mediated by instances of past learning.

【 授权许可】

CC BY