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Related Concept Videos

Language Development01:22

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Associative Learning01:27

Associative Learning

Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning.
Classical conditioning, also known...
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory01:26

Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory

Memory is one of the most vital higher mental functions of the brain. Memory is closely related to learning because it enables us to retain information and experiences from our past to use them in our present life. It also helps us to remember facts, events, and skills, such as riding a bike or swimming. There are two types of memory — declarative memory, which involves memorizing facts or events, and procedural memory, which enables us to remember how to do something like writing or playing an...
Complementation Tests00:49

Complementation Tests

A complementation test is a simple cross to identify whether the two mutations are located on the same gene or different genes. It was first performed by Edward Lewis in the 1940s while working on fruit flies. He developed the test to identify the location and arrangement of different mutations on chromosomes.
Organisms heterozygous for different mutations are crossed pairwise in all combinations. If present on different genes, the mutations can complement each other by providing the missing...
Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon01:10

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon is a cognitive experience characterized by a temporary inability to retrieve specific information from memory despite having a strong feeling of knowing the information. Although individuals cannot access the target word or detail, they frequently recall related elements, such as its initial letter, syllable count, or context. This partial retrieval often causes frustration, as one might recognize a familiar face or know that a name starts with a specific...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
06:48

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment

Published on: June 25, 2019

Lexical competition in young children's word learning.

Daniel Swingley1, Richard N Aslin

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. swingley@psych.upenn.edu

Cognitive Psychology
|October 24, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Young children struggle to learn new words that sound like familiar ones. This lexical competition hinders their ability to identify novel words, impacting early word acquisition.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics

Background:

  • Children's word learning is crucial for language development.
  • Phonological similarity between words can influence learning and comprehension.
  • Lexical competition, the inhibitory interaction between similar words, is a known factor in adult speech processing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of phonological similarity on early word learning in 1.5-year-olds.
  • To determine if lexical competition affects children's ability to learn novel words.
  • To examine whether children use phonological cues to infer word meaning.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted with 1.5-year-old children.
  • Novel words with phonologically similar (neighbors) and dissimilar (nonneighbors) patterns to familiar words were introduced.

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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition
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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

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  • A picture-fixation task assessed word learning and recognition.
  • Children's spontaneous use of phonological differences to map words to objects was observed.

    • Main Results:

    • Children successfully learned novel nonneighbors but failed to learn novel neighbors.
    • Exposure to novel neighbors impaired recognition of familiar neighbor words.
    • Children did not spontaneously use phonological differences to link novel words to novel objects.

    Conclusions:

    • Lexical competition can impede word learning in young children by inhibiting the processing of phonologically similar novel words.
    • Early word learning involves not just phonetic discrimination but also evaluating the likelihood of encountering new vocabulary.
    • Phonological sensitivity alone is insufficient for word learning when lexical competition is high.