ABSTRACT

In this series of experiments, we tested the limits of young infants’ word learning and generalization abilities in light of recent findings reporting sophisticated word learning abilities in the first year of life. Ten-month-old infants were trained with two word-object pairs and tested with either the same or different members of the corresponding categories. In Experiment 1, infants showed successful learning of the word-object associations, when trained and tested with a single exemplar from each category. In Experiment 2, infants were presented with multiple within-category items during training but failed to learn the word-object associations. In Experiment 3, infants were presented with a single exemplar from each category during training, and failed to generalize words to a new category exemplar. However, when infants were trained with items from perceptually and conceptually distinct categories in Experiment 4, they showed weak evidence for generalization of words to novel members of the corresponding categories. It is suggested that word learning in the first year begins as the formation of simple associations between words and objects that become enriched as experience with objects, words and categories accumulates across development.

摘要

在这一系列的实验中，我们根据最近的发现报告了生命的第一年中复杂的单词学习能力，测试了幼儿单词学习和泛化能力的极限。对十个月大的婴儿进行了两个单词-对象对的训练，并使用相应类别的相同或不同成员进行了测试。在实验1中，使用来自每个类别的单个样本进行训练和测试时，婴儿展示出成功学习单词-宾语联想的能力。在实验2中，在训练过程中向婴儿展示了多个类别内项目，但未能学习单词与对象的关联。在实验3中，在训练过程中向婴儿展示了每个类别的一个示例，但未能将单词归纳为新类别的示例。然而，在实验4中，对婴儿进行了在感知和概念上不同类别的项目的训练时，他们为将单词推广到相应类别的新颖成员提供了微弱的证据。建议在第一年开始单词学习，因为单词和对象之间的简单关联逐渐形成，随着对象，单词和类别经验的积累在整个发展过程中逐渐丰富。