Contributions of Speaking, Listening, and Semantic Depth to Word Learning in Typical 3- and 4-Year-Olds

This study examined learning via perception, learning via production, and semantic depth as contributors to word learning in preschool-aged children. There is broad evidence that semantic depth is an important contributor to word learning, especially when semantic cues are repeated and spaced out over time. Perceptual learning and production learning each support word learning sometimes, but not in all cases. The purpose of this study was to examine all three learning mechanisms within a single experimental paradigm.

Thirty-six typically developing preschool children completed the experiment. They were familiarized with 16 novel words that were contextualized as alien names. These aliens came in four sets, each set comprising one base alien and three modified aliens marked by suffixes. Children completed four familiarizations: two in which they simply listened to the alien names (perceptual learning) and two where they repeated the alien names (production learning). Those conditions were crossed with a semantic depth manipulation (aliens with and without verbal semantic cues). Following each familiarization, referent identification and confrontation naming tasks were completed to assess learning.

Children were able to identify more alien referents following familiarizations with semantic depth. There were no significant effects of either perceptual learning or production learning.

This study confirms and expands on the benefits of semantic depth, but the results are unclear about the relative importance of perception and production to word learning. Nevertheless, the study suggests benefits to simultaneously studying multiple factors related to word learning.