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Published on: July 13, 2019
Combining statistics: the role of phonotactics on cross-situational word learning
Rodrigo Dal Ben1, Débora de Hollanda Souza2, Jessica F Hay3
1Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil. dalbenwork2@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Language learners can rely on phonological and semantic information to learn novel words. Using a cross-situational word learning paradigm, we explored the role of phonotactic probabilities on word learning in ambiguous contexts. Brazilian-Portuguese speaking adults (N = 30) were exposed to two sets of word-object pairs. Words from one set of labels had slightly higher phonotactic probabilities than words from the other set. By tracking co-occurrences of words and objects, participants were able to learn word-object mappings similarly across both sets. Our findings contrast with studies showing a facilitative effect of phonotactic probability on word learning in non-ambiguous contexts.
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