Integrating constraints for learning word-referent mappings

Monaghan, Padraic and Mattock, Karen (2012) Integrating constraints for learning word-referent mappings. Cognition, 123 (1). pp. 133-143. ISSN 0010-0277

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Abstract

Learning word-referent mappings is complex because the word and its referent tend to co-occur with multiple other words and potential referents. Such complexity has led to proposals for a host of constraints on learning, though how these constraints may interact has not yet been investigated in detail. In this paper, we investigated interactions between word co-occurrence constraints and cross-situational statistics in word learning. Analyses of child-directed speech revealed that when both object-referring and non-referring words occurred in the utterance, referring words were more likely to be preceded by a determiner than when the utterance contained only referring words. In a word learning study containing both referring and non-referring words, learning was facilitated when non-referring words contributed grammatical constraints analogous to determiners. The complexity of multi-word utterances provides an opportunity for co-occurrence constraints to contribute to word-referent mapping, and the learning mechanism is able to integrate these multiple sources of information.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Cognition
Additional Information:
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/psychology
Subjects:
?? word learningcross-situational learningchild-directed speech distributional information multiple cue integration corpus analysispsychologylinguistics and languagecognitive neuroscienceexperimental and cognitive psychologylanguage and linguisticsbf psychol ??
ID Code:
52790
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
22 Feb 2012 11:22
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 12:40