The Effect of Cross-situational Co-occurrence on Word Interpretation among Preschoolers

Abstract Early word learning is always thought a difficult task as children has not mature mechanism to solve multiple encounters in real learning situations. Accordingly, research on efficient mechanism of word learning has been developed, addressing cross-situational word learning. Recent research has highlighted ability of cross-situational word learning among adults, as well as in early word learning among school-aged children and addressed the mechanism underlying cross-situational learning process by presenting that the process is affected by contextual persity. The present study tests cross-situational word learning among preschoolers at the age of 5 and 6 by presenting a series of trials with ambiguity. Children can learn word-referent mappings by attending to co-occurrence regularity across situations. The present study then shows that with higher frequencies children strengthen more association, learning more word-referent mappings.47657

Key words: cross-situational learning; word learning; co-occurrence frequency; strength of association

 跨情境共现关系对学前儿童词汇学习的影响

摘要由于儿童的学习机制还未发展成熟，早期词汇学习是一项相对艰难的任务。因此出现了一些关于早期词汇学习中有效的学习机制的研究，跨情境词汇学习由此而来。现有研究证明了不但成人的跨情境词汇学习能力，学龄儿童以及十几个月大的婴儿也具备跨情境学习词汇的能力，并且通过研究跨情境学习过程背后的机制找出了一个关键的影响因素——情境多样性。在此基础上，本研究通过制造一系列模糊情境来测试5到6岁的学前儿童也具备这种跨情境学习能力。研究中的儿童能够横跨不同学习情境处理词语与指代物之间的共现关系，学习新异词汇，将词语和其指代物匹配。基于这种共现关系的影响，本研究进一步展开，发现在词语和指代物高频次的共现情况下，学前儿童能够跨情境建立更多的联结，准确地匹配词语和目标物，学习新异词汇。

毕业论文关键词：跨情境学习；词汇学习；共现频次；联结强度

 Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 3

    2.1 Development of Research on Cross-situational Word Learning 3

    2.2 Two Important Studies to the Present Research 4

3. Experiment 1 5

    3.1 Introduction 5

    3.2 Method 5

    3.2.1 Participants 5

    3.2.2 Stimuli and Apparatus 5

    3.2.3 Design 5

    3.2.4 Procedure 6

    3.3 Result and Discussion 7

4. Experiment 2 9

    4.1 Introduction 9

    4.2 Method 9

    4.2.1 Participants 9

    4.2.2 Stimuli and Apparatus 9

    4.2.3 Design 9

    4.2.4 Procedure 10

    4.3 Results and Discussion 10

5. Experiment 3