Work

Prediction error boosts retention of novel words in adults but not in children

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: How do we update our linguistic knowledge? In seven experiments, we asked whether error-driven learning can explain under what circumstances adults and children are more likely to store and retain a new word meaning. Participants were exposed to novel object labels in the context of more or less constraining sentences or visual contexts. Both two-to-four-year-olds (Mage = 38 months) and adults were strongly affected by expectations based on sentence constraint when choosing the referent of a new label. In addition, adults formed stronger memory traces for novel words that violated a stronger prior expectation. However, preschoolers' memory was unaffected by the strength of their prior expectations. We conclude that the encoding of new word-object associations in memory is affected by prediction error in adults, but not in preschoolers.

Source: Cognition

DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104650

Authors: Chiara Gambi, Martin J. Pickering, Hugh Rabagliati

Institutions: Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh

Language: English

Topic: Language Development and Disorders

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,290

Funders: Leverhulme Trust, Economic and Social Research Council