Lexical processing is influenced by a word’s semantic diversity, as estimated by corpus-derived metrics. Although this suggests that contextual variation shapes verbal learning and memory, it is not clear what semantic diversity represents and why this influences lexical processing. Word learning experiments and simulations offer an opportunity to manipulate contextual variation directly and measure the effects on processing. In Experiment 1, adults read novel words in six naturalistic passages spanning one familiar topic (low semantic diversity) or six familiar topics (high semantic diversity). Words experienced in the low-diversity condition showed better learning, an effect replicated by simulating spreading activation in lexical networks differing in semantic diversity. We attributed these findings to “anchoring”, a process of stabilizing novel word representations by securing them onto a familiar topic in long-term memory. Simulation 2 and Experiment 2 tested whether word learning might be better placed to take advantage of diversity if novel words were given an anchoring opportunity. Simulations and behavioural data both showed that after an anchoring opportunity, novel word forms were better learned in the high-diversity condition, contrasting with Simulation/Experiment 1. Taken together, these findings show that anchoring and contextual variation both influence the early stages of word learning.

词法处理受单词的语义多样性影响，该语义多样性是由语料库得出的指标估计的。尽管这表明语境变化会影响语言学习和记忆，但尚不清楚语义多样性代表什么以及为什么这会影响词汇处理。单词学习实验和模拟提供了直接操纵上下文变化并测量对处理的影响的机会。在实验1中，成年人阅读了六个自然主义段落中的新颖单词，这些段落跨越了一个熟悉的话题（低语义多样性）或六个熟悉的话题（高语义多样性）。在低多样性条件下经历的单词表现出更好的学习效果，这种效果是通过模拟语义多样性不同的词汇网络中的扩散激活来复制的。我们将这些发现归因于“锚定”，通过将新颖的单词表示形式固定在长期记忆中熟悉的主题上来稳定它们的过程。模拟2和实验2测试了如果给新单词锚定机会，单词学习是否可以更好地利用多样性。模拟和行为数据均表明，在锚定机会之后，与模拟/实验1相比，在高多样性条件下更好地学习了新颖的单词形式。综上所述，这些发现表明，锚定和上下文变化均会影响单词的早期阶段。学习。