Eye-tracking the time‐course of novel word learning and lexical competition in adults and children

TY - JOUR

T1 - Eye-tracking the time‐course of novel word learning and lexical competition in adults and children

AU - Weighall, Anna

AU - Henderson, Lisa-Marie

AU - Barr, Dale

AU - Cairney, Scott Ashley

AU - Gaskell, Mark Gareth

N1 - © 2016 Elsevier Inc. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details. Embargo period: 12 months

PY - 2017/4/1

Y1 - 2017/4/1

N2 - Lexical competition is a hallmark of proficient, automatic word recognition. Previous research suggests that there is a delay before a new spoken word becomes engaged in this process, with sleep playing an important role. However, data from one method--the visual world paradigm--consistently show competition without a delay. We trained 42 adults and 40 children (aged 7-8) on novel word-object pairings, and employed this paradigm to measure the time-course of lexical competition. Fixations to novel objects upon hearing existing words (e.g., looks to the novel object biscal upon hearing “click on the biscuit”) were compared to fixations on untrained objects. Novel word-object pairings learned immediately before testing and those learned the previous day exhibited significant competition effects, with stronger competition for the previous day pairings for children but not adults. Crucially, this competition effect was significantly smaller for novel than existing competitors (e.g., looks to candy upon hearing “click on the candle”), suggesting that novel items may not compete for recognition like fully-fledged lexical items, even after 24 hours. Explicit memory (cued recall) was superior for words learned the day before testing, particularly for children; this effect (but not the lexical competition effects) correlated with sleep-spindle density. Together, the results suggest that different aspects of new word learning follow different time courses: visual world competition effects can emerge swiftly, but are qualitatively different from those observed with established words, and are less reliant upon sleep. Furthermore, the findings fit with the view that word learning earlier in development is boosted by sleep to a greater degree.

AB - Lexical competition is a hallmark of proficient, automatic word recognition. Previous research suggests that there is a delay before a new spoken word becomes engaged in this process, with sleep playing an important role. However, data from one method--the visual world paradigm--consistently show competition without a delay. We trained 42 adults and 40 children (aged 7-8) on novel word-object pairings, and employed this paradigm to measure the time-course of lexical competition. Fixations to novel objects upon hearing existing words (e.g., looks to the novel object biscal upon hearing “click on the biscuit”) were compared to fixations on untrained objects. Novel word-object pairings learned immediately before testing and those learned the previous day exhibited significant competition effects, with stronger competition for the previous day pairings for children but not adults. Crucially, this competition effect was significantly smaller for novel than existing competitors (e.g., looks to candy upon hearing “click on the candle”), suggesting that novel items may not compete for recognition like fully-fledged lexical items, even after 24 hours. Explicit memory (cued recall) was superior for words learned the day before testing, particularly for children; this effect (but not the lexical competition effects) correlated with sleep-spindle density. Together, the results suggest that different aspects of new word learning follow different time courses: visual world competition effects can emerge swiftly, but are qualitatively different from those observed with established words, and are less reliant upon sleep. Furthermore, the findings fit with the view that word learning earlier in development is boosted by sleep to a greater degree.

KW - Acquisition

KW - Complementary learning systems (CLS)

KW - Language development

KW - Learning

KW - Memory consolidation

KW - Sleep

KW - Spoken word recognition

KW - Visual world paradigm

KW - Word learning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84996540004&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.bandl.2016.07.010

DO - 10.1016/j.bandl.2016.07.010

M3 - Article

SN - 0093-934X

VL - 167

SP - 13

EP - 27

JO - Brain and Language

JF - Brain and Language

ER -