Many authors have argued that word-learning constraints help guide a word-learner's hypotheses as to the meaning of a newly heard word. One such class of constraints derives from the observation that word-learners of all ages prefer to map novel labels to novel objects in situations of referential ambiguity. In this paper I use eye-tracking to document the mental computations that support this word-learning strategy. Adults and preschoolers saw images of known and novel objects, and were asked to find the referent of known and novel labels. Experiment 1 shows that adults systematically reject a known distractor (e.g. brush) before mapping a novel label (e.g. "dax") to a novel object. This is consistent with the proposal that participants worked through a Disjunctive Syllogism (i.e. Process-of-Elimination) to motivate the mapping of the novel label to the novel object. Experiment 2 shows that processing is similar for adults performing an implicit Disjunctive Syllogism (e.g. "the winner is the dax") and an explicit Disjunctive Syllogism (e.g. "the winner is not the iron"). Experiment 3 reveals that similar processes govern preschoolers' mapping of novel labels. Taken together, these results suggest that word-learners use Disjunctive Syllogism to motivate the mapping of novel labels to novel objects.

中文翻译：

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这是我在我面前看到的 dax 吗？使用逻辑论证析取三段论支持儿童和成人的单词学习

许多作者认为，单词学习限制有助于指导单词学习者对新听到的单词含义的假设。一类这样的约束来自观察所有年龄段的单词学习者更喜欢将新标签映射到指代歧义情况下的新对象。在这篇论文中，我使用眼动追踪来记录支持这种单词学习策略的心理计算。成人和学龄前儿童看到已知和新颖物体的图像，并被要求找到已知和新颖标签的指称。实验 1 显示成年人在将新标签（例如“dax”）映射到新对象之前系统地拒绝已知干扰物（例如刷子）。这与参与者通过析取三段论（即 Process-of-Elimination) 来激励新标签到新对象的映射。实验 2 表明，对于执行隐式分离三段论（例如“赢家是 dax”）和显式分离三段论（例如“赢家不是铁”）的成年人，处理是相似的。实验 3 揭示了类似的过程控制着学龄前儿童对新标签的映射。总之，这些结果表明单词学习者使用析取三段论来激发新标签到新对象的映射。实验 3 揭示了类似的过程控制着学龄前儿童对新标签的映射。总之，这些结果表明单词学习者使用析取三段论来激发新标签到新对象的映射。实验 3 揭示了类似的过程控制着学龄前儿童对新标签的映射。总之，这些结果表明单词学习者使用析取三段论来激发新标签到新对象的映射。