The role of input frequency in lexical acquisition

Schwartz, Richard G.; Terrell, Brenda Y.

doi:10.1017/s0305000900005134

Cited by 107 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In other studies involving large sets of target words, learning has also been limited. For example, Schwartz and Terrell (1983) found toddlers to learn, on average, only 5 or 6 of 16 novel words presented multiple times over the course of 10 weeks. Here 20 words were presented and, judging by their performance in session 1, the children were unfamiliar with the majority of them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Learning words from exposures distributed over time is generally more effective than learning from exposures massed at a single point in time, even when the overall number of exposures is held constant (Childers & Tomasello, 2002; Riches, Tomasello, & ContiRamsden, 2005;Schwartz & Terrell). The benefits of distributed exposure hold for both initial phases of learning and for later retention (Bahrick & Phelps, 1987).…”

Section: Frequency Of Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Complexities of Expressive Word Learning Over Time

McGregor

Sheng

Ball

2007

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Purpose-To examine semantic and lexical aspects of word learning over time.Method-Thirty four 8-year-olds participated in vocabulary lessons for two weeks. Frequency of exposure and informativeness of semantic context were manipulated. A definition task assessed semantic learning and a naming task assessed lexical learning.Results-Lexical and semantic knowledge accrued over time and were maintained after a onemonth interval. Higher frequency of exposure had an immediate effect on semantic learning and a more gradual effect on lexical learning. Frequency of exposure coupled with informative context promoted semantic learning.Clinical Implications-Clinicians should be mindful of the richness of the learning context and the redundancy of massed and distributed exposures. Learning at the semantic and lexical levels can dissociate so both should be addressed.Children are typically viewed as word learning machines; without direct instruction they add an estimated eight to ten new words each day to their receptive vocabularies (Beck & McKeown, 1991;Nagy & Herman, 1987) with an accumulation of roughly 60,000 words by high school graduation (Aitchinson, 1994;Bloom, 2000). However, these impressive statistics belie the true nature and course of word learning. The task of word learning is multifaceted, involving at a minimum the mapping of the lexical form of the word (its phonemes, number of syllables, stress patterns), the semantics of the word (its referent), and a link between the two (see Gupta, 2005 for a relevant model). The initial memory trace of newly learned words will be fragile and unlikely to support production (Gershkoff-Stowe & Smith, 1997) or retention (Horst, McMurray, Samuelson, 2006). Only with additional exposures to the word in meaningful contexts over time does the child acquire a deep and lasting knowledge of any given word (Bloom, 2000;Carey, 1978).Imagine a child experiencing his first birthday party. Mom says, "let me light the candle" and, a few seconds later Dad says, "Let's blow out the candle." The child has heard the lexical form twice while seeing the referent and witnessing some relevant events (lighting, blowing). What he has actually learned about the word candle at this point in time is minimal. Perhaps he will recognize the word or the object when he attends a friend's birthday party and the memory trace will become more stable. Over time as he has more encounters with candles, he will learn to label them himself. He will come to know that they are hot, that they come in various colors and sizes, and that they are made of wax. In this sense, the learning of the word candle on his birthday is just the initial step in an extended process. Despite the importance of extended learning to the ultimate development of the lexicon, most investigations of word learning measure only fast mapping, the child's initial inference about the link between lexical form and referent. One goal of the present study was to begin to remedy this gap in the literature by exploring three phases of word l...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Frequency Of Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

Complexities of Expressive Word Learning Over Time

McGregor

Sheng

Ball

2007

LSHSS

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“…Word frequency exerts a strong influence on the likelihood of an error in adults; low-frequency words are more subject to error than high-frequency words (Dell, 1990;Stemberger & MacWhinney, 1985). In the case of the novice learner, the strength of a word will depend on its experienced frequency, that is, on the actual number of times children have the opportunity to hear and say the word (Schwartz & Terrell, 1983). Early in development, when children first begin to name objects, all of their words will be of low frequency.…”

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confidence: 99%

Object Naming, Vocabulary Growth, and the Development of Word Retrieval Abilities

Gershkoff-Stowe¹

2002

Journal of Memory and Language

118

112

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“…Even stronger evidence for the generality of the noun advantage comes from studies by Schwartz, Camarata, and Leonard in which children were presented with novel words, either as nouns or as verbs, and then tested for the production of these words. Even when stress, frequency, phonological makeup, and word order are equated, children are more likely to produce words experienced as nouns than as verbs (Camarata & Leonard, 1986;Camarata & Schwartz, 1985;Schwartz & Terrell, 1983). Thus, it appears that the reasons for the early noun advantage are conceptual or semantic factors.…”

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confidence: 99%