Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

What are you talking about?

Figuring out the referent of a new word is a hard problem, yet children solve it early and often. A new model by Bohn et al. proposes that young children rationally combine different sources of information when learning language. This account precisely predicts and explains novel developmental findings, above and beyond competing proposals.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Quine, W. V. O. Word and Object (MIT Press, 1960).

  2. Pratchett, T. The Light Fantastic (Colin Smythe, 1986).

  3. Yurovsky, D. New Ideas Psychol. 50, 73–79 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Markman, E. M. & Wachtel, G. F. Cogn. Psychol. 20, 121–157 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Diesendruck, G., Markson, L., Akhtar, N. & Reudor, A. Dev. Sci. 7, 33–41 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bohn, M., Tessler, M. H., Merrick, M. & Frank, M. C. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01145-1 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tomer D. Ullman.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ullman, T.D. What are you talking about?. Nat Hum Behav 5, 976–977 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01147-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01147-z

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing