Can Infants Retain Statistically Segmented Words and Mappings Across a Delay?

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Infants possess sensitivity to statistical properties in spoken language, crucial for segmenting words and linking them to referents.
• The influence of this statistical sensitivity on the formation and retention of word-referent mappings over time remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the timing of referent training, relative to familiarization with speech statistics (transitional probabilities or TPs), affects word-referent mapping in 23-month-old infants.
• To determine if infants can retain and utilize TP information across a delay for word learning.

Main Methods:

• Experiment 1: Assessed 23-month-olds' ability to retain TP information across a 10-minute delay and apply it to word learning.
• Experiment 2: Tested immediate word-referent mapping with unfamiliar words.
• Experiment 3: Examined immediate training of high- and low-TP word-referent mappings and subsequent retention.

Main Results:

• Infants successfully mapped high-TP words but not low-TP words after a 10-minute delay (Experiment 1).
• Immediate mapping of unfamiliar words was readily achieved (Experiment 2).
• High- and low-TP word-referent mappings were easily retained after immediate training (Experiment 3).

Conclusions:

• While 23-month-olds do not require strong statistics for immediate word mapping or retention across a delay, they are sensitive to these statistics.
• Sensitivity to speech statistics influences word-referent mapping after a delay, potentially hindering the mapping of less coherent word forms following consolidation.
• This suggests statistical sensitivity plays a role in early language development by impacting the consolidation of word learning.