Research article summary (published 30 Aug 2009):

Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual: infants' language experience influences the development of a word-learning heuristic.

Full Abstract

How infants learn new words is a fundamental puzzle in language acquisition. To guide their word learning, infants exploit systematic word-learning heuristics that allow them to link new words to likely referents. By 17 months, infants show a tendency to associate a novel noun with a novel object rather than a familiar one, a heuristic known as disambiguation. Yet, the developmental origins of this heuristic remain unknown. We compared disambiguation in 17- to 18-month-old infants from different language backgrounds to determine whether language experience influences its development, or whether disambiguation instead emerges as a result of maturation or social experience. Monolinguals showed strong use of disambiguation, bilinguals showed marginal use, and trilinguals showed no disambiguation. The number of languages being learned, but not vocabulary size, predicted performance. The results point to a key role for language experience in the development of disambiguation, and help to distinguish among theoretical accounts of its emergence.

Author information

Author/s: Byers-Heinlein, Krista (K); Werker, Janet F (JF);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. kbyers(-atsign-)psych.ubc.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Developmental science (Dev Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 12 (issue 5) : pp 815-23

Dates: Created 2009/08/25; Completed 2009/11/02;

PMID: 19702772, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/2/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Analysis of Variance Child Development - physiology Concept Formation Female Humans Infant Language Development Male

Male Multilingualism Paired-Associate Learning - physiology Pattern Recognition, Visual Photic Stimulation - methods Psycholinguistics Verbal Learning - physiology Vocabulary

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