A central component of language development is word learning. One characterization of this process is that language learners discover objects and then look for word forms to associate with these objects (Mcnamara, 1984; Smith, 2000). Another possibility is that word forms themselves are also important, such that once learned, hearing a familiar…

Both adults and young children possess powerful statistical computation capabilities--they can infer the referent of a word from highly ambiguous contexts involving many words and many referents by aggregating cross-situational statistical information across contexts. This ability has been explained by models of hypothesis testing and by models of…

The developmental memory research with children indicates that highly variable rehearsal leads to better overall recall and that the strength of interitem associations may play some role in improving recall. This paper reports on two experiments to investigate the interplay between the number and strength of interitem associations, and how each is…

Two experiments investigate the relationship between developmental trends for auditory selective attention, and dependence on central/incidental word relations. Subjects were 48 children each from first, fourth, and seventh grades, and 48 adults. (CM)

To develop a coherent description of the knowledge and processes involved in skillful word recognition, a study was devised in which 16 adults participated in four related experiments. The purpose of the first experiment was to examine some basic aspects of the processing of words, pseudowords, and nonwords and to discover basic differences in…

Contrary to the basic-level restraint hypothesis, which suggests that young children learn basic-level words more easily than specific-level words, these five studies show that although other constraints on word meaning may be in place, children are flexible in interpreting new words at different hierarchical levels. (MDM)

Describes a study which compared a traditional approach to second language vocabulary instruction with the semantic field approach, which is based on the association between five related words and a key word that could be mentally substituted in context. Findings lend support to the use of the semantic field approach. (SED)

Phonological coding in printed-word recognition in English was studied by examining the use made of syllable information by skilled and less skilled readers in the second grade and by adults. The results are discussed in terms of an interactive model of reading. (Author/PN)