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Related Concept Videos

Components of Language01:24

Components of Language

Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs. “eh”). Phonemes combine to...
Determination of Expected Frequency01:08

Determination of Expected Frequency

Suppose one wants to test independence between the two variables of a contingency table. The values in the table constitute the observed frequencies of the dataset. But how does one determine the expected frequency of the dataset? One of the important assumptions is that the two variables are independent, which means the variables do not influence each other. For independent variables, the statistical probability of any event involving both variables is calculated by multiplying the individual...
Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
Directional Terms01:14

Directional Terms

Directional terms are essential for describing the relative locations of different body structures. For instance, an anatomist might describe one band of tissue as "inferior to" another, or a physician might describe a tumor as "superficial to" a deeper body structure. These terms often use comparative terms in pairs to trace out the relative locations of one body part to another or descriptions of body tissues like the deeper ones from superficially present with reference to the body's upright...
Expected Frequencies in Goodness-of-Fit Tests01:19

Expected Frequencies in Goodness-of-Fit Tests

A goodness-of-fit test is conducted to determine whether the observed frequency values are statistically similar to the frequencies expected for the dataset. Suppose the expected frequencies for a dataset are equal such as when predicting the frequency of any number appearing when casting a die. In that case, the expected frequency is the ratio of the total number of observations (n) to the number of categories (k).
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: May 12, 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

Word frequency, function words and the second gavagai problem.

Jean-Rémy Hochmann1

  • 1SISSA, International School for Advances Studies, Cognitive Neuroscience Department, via Bonomea, 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy. jr.hochmann@gmail.com

Cognition
|April 6, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Infants learn language by identifying function words based on their frequency. This study shows that infants can distinguish frequent syllables from infrequent ones, aiding in word-referent association.

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 12, 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

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics

Background:

  • The gavagai problem highlights challenges in word-referent mapping.
  • Understanding how infants segment words and identify referential meaning is crucial for language acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether infants can identify potential function words based on syllable frequency.
  • To determine if infants avoid frequent syllables when associating novel labels with referents.

Main Methods:

  • 17-month-old infants were exposed to artificial speech with alternating frequent and infrequent syllables.
  • Infants heard bisyllabic labels comprising one frequent and one infrequent syllable paired with novel objects.
  • Object-label association was tested by presenting familiar and novel objects with new labels.

Main Results:

  • Infants showed stronger association between infrequent syllables and objects compared to frequent syllables.
  • This effect was observed when the position of the frequent syllable within the label remained constant.

Conclusions:

  • Infants can use syllable frequency to identify potential function words.
  • This mechanism aids infants in focusing on non-frequent syllables for referential meaning, facilitating word learning.