Learning individual words and learning about words simultaneously

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dc.contributor.authorYuan, S.
dc.contributor.authorPerfors, A.
dc.contributor.authorTenenbaum, J.
dc.contributor.authorXu, F.
dc.contributor.conferenceAnnual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci) (20 Jul 2011 - 22 Jul 2011 : Boston, Massachusetts)
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractChildren are guided by constraints and biases in word learning. In the case of the shape bias—the tendency to extend count nouns by similarity in shape—previous findings have revealed that learning plays an important role in its development (e.g., Smith et al., 2002). Some have proposed that children acquire inductive constraints like the shape bias by making inferences about observed data on multiple levels of abstraction (e.g., Smith et al. 2002; Kemp et al., 2007). The current study provides support for this hypothesis by demonstrating that preschoolers can rapidly and flexibly form overhypotheses about the role of arbitrary features, not just shape, in determining how words refer to object categories. This work suggests that when learning individual words, children are also learning about words simultaneously. Children’s ability to “learn to learn” may have implications for the origins of learning biases in many different cognitive domains, not just in language learning.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilitySylvia Yuan, Amy Perfors, Josh Tenenbaum, Fei Xu
dc.identifier.citationExpanding the Space of Cognitive Science, Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2011, pp.3280-3285
dc.identifier.isbn9780976831877
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/88150
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherCognitive Science Society
dc.publisher.placeAustin, TX, USA
dc.source.urihttp://mindmodeling.org/cogsci2011/papers/0758/index.html
dc.titleLearning individual words and learning about words simultaneously
dc.typeConference paper
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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