Our knowledge about the world is represented not merely as a collection of concepts, but as an organized lexico-semantic network in which concepts can be linked by relations, such as "taxonomic" relations between members of the same stable category (e.g., cat and sheep), or association between entities that occur together or in the same context (e.g., sock and foot). To date, accounts of the origins of semantic organization have largely overlooked how sensitivity to statistical regularities ubiquitous in the environment may play a powerful role in shaping semantic development. The goal of the present research was to investigate how associations in the form of statistical regularities with which labels for concepts co-occur in language (e.g., sock and foot) and taxonomic relatedness (e.g., sock and pajamas) shape semantic organization of 4-5-year-olds and adults. To examine these aspects of semantic organization across development, we conducted three experiments examining effects of co-occurrence and taxonomic relatedness on cued recall (Experiment 1), word-picture matching (Experiment 2), and looking dynamics in a Visual World paradigm (Experiment 3). Taken together, the results of the three experiments provide evidence that co-occurrence-based links between concepts manifest in semantic organization from early childhood onward, and are increasingly supplemented by taxonomic links. We discuss these findings in relation to theories of semantic development.

中文翻译：

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统计规律在整个开发过程中塑造语义组织。

我们关于世界的知识不仅被表示为概念的集合，而且被表示为一个有组织的词汇语义网络，其中概念可以通过关系联系起来，例如同一稳定类别成员之间的“分类”关系（例如，猫和羊），或同时出现或在同一上下文中出现的实体之间的关联（例如，袜子和脚）。迄今为止，对语义组织起源的描述在很大程度上忽略了对环境中普遍存在的统计规律的敏感性如何在塑造语义发展中发挥强大作用。本研究的目的是调查统计规律形式的关联如何与概念标签在语言（例如，袜子和脚）和分类相关性（例如，袜子和睡衣）塑造 4-5 岁儿童和成人的语义组织。为了检查语义组织在整个开发过程中的这些方面，我们进行了三个实验，检查共现和分类相关性对线索回忆（实验 1）、单词图片匹配（实验 2）和视觉世界范式中的查找动态（实验）的影响3）。总之，这三个实验的结果提供了证据，表明概念之间基于共现的联系从儿童早期开始就表现在语义组织中，并且越来越多地被分类联系所补充。我们讨论与语义发展理论相关的这些发现。我们进行了三个实验，检查共现和分类相关性对线索回忆（实验 1）、单词图片匹配（实验 2）和视觉世界范式中的外观动态（实验 3）的影响。总之，这三个实验的结果提供了证据，表明概念之间基于共现的联系从儿童早期开始就表现在语义组织中，并且越来越多地被分类联系所补充。我们讨论与语义发展理论相关的这些发现。我们进行了三个实验，检查共现和分类相关性对线索回忆（实验 1）、单词图片匹配（实验 2）和视觉世界范式中的外观动态（实验 3）的影响。总之，这三个实验的结果提供了证据，表明概念之间基于共现的联系从儿童早期开始就表现在语义组织中，并且越来越多地被分类联系所补充。我们讨论与语义发展理论相关的这些发现。并且越来越多地得到分类学链接的补充。我们讨论与语义发展理论相关的这些发现。并且越来越多地得到分类学链接的补充。我们讨论与语义发展理论相关的这些发现。