A changing role for transitional probabilities in word learning during the transition to toddlerhood?

Lany J., Karaman F., Hay J. F.

Developmental psychology, vol.60, no.3, pp.567-581, 2024 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 60 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1037/dev0001641
  • Journal Name: Developmental psychology
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ASSIA, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, PASCAL, Periodicals Index Online, CAB Abstracts, Child Development & Adolescent Studies, CINAHL, Communication Abstracts, Criminal Justice Abstracts, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), EMBASE, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Gender Studies Database, Linguistic Bibliography, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo
  • Page Numbers: pp.567-581
  • Uşak University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Infants' sensitivity to transitional probabilities (TPs) supports language development by facilitating mapping high-TP (HTP) words to meaning, at least up to 18 months of age. Here we tested whether this HTP advantage holds as lexical development progresses, and infants become better at forming word-referent mappings. Two groups of 24-month-olds (N = 64 and all White, tested in the United States) first listened to Italian sentences containing HTP and low-TP (LTP) words. We then used HTP and LTP words, and sequences that violated these statistics, in a mapping task. Infants learned HTP and LTP words equally well. They also learned LTP violations as well as LTP words, but learned HTP words better than HTP violations. Thus, by 2 years of age sensitivity to TPs does not lead to an HTP advantage but rather to poor mapping of violations of HTP word forms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).