Abstract Research on word learning demonstrates that meanings of novel words are better recalled when those words are encountered in a variety of semantic contexts than when encountered in the same repeated context. The present study examines how semantic and non-semantic contextual variations in word learning encounters impact learning the meanings of novel words. Across two experiments, highly proficient Spanish-English bilinguals studied rare words in repeated or varied semantic contexts, presented in only one language or in both languages. Participants recalled more word meanings when semantic context was varied rather than repeated at study, and this effect did not differ for the more and less proficient languages. However, varying the language context provided no benefit relative to studying words in only one language. Performance patterns were consistent for visual and auditory study modalities, and in both recall and recognition tasks, performance was less accurate overall in the less proficient language than in the more proficient language. These findings replicate the advantage of semantic variation observed in monolingual studies and is the first to directly compare learning from varied and repeated semantic contexts for more and less proficient languages in bilinguals.

中文翻译：

---

句子语境中的双语新词学习：语义和语言变异的影响

摘要 单词学习研究表明，与在相同重复上下文中遇到的单词相比，在各种语义上下文中遇到这些单词时，这些单词的含义更好地被回忆。本研究考察了单词学习遇到的语义和非语义上下文变化如何影响学习新单词的含义。在两次实验中，精通西英双语者研究了重复或不同语义上下文中的罕见单词，这些单词仅以一种语言或两种语言呈现。当语义上下文变化而不是在研究中重复时，参与者回忆起更多的词义，并且这种效果对于越来越不熟练的语言没有差异。然而，相对于只学习一种语言的单词，改变语言上下文并没有带来任何好处。视觉和听觉研究模式的表现模式是一致的，并且在回忆和识别任务中，在不太熟练的语言中的表现总体上不如在更熟练的语言中准确。这些发现复制了在单语研究中观察到的语义变化的优势，并且是第一个直接比较从不同和重复语义上下文中学习的双语者的熟练程度和熟练程度较低的语言。