Effects of active learning and talker variability on preschoolers' novel word learning

Words sound different every time they are said, both by the same person and across people. This variability has been found to have mixed effects on learning, sometimes benefitting learning and other times making it more challenging. However, all prior studies investigating effects of talker variability have used passive exposure, presenting participants with predetermined orders or fixed types of variability. Here, we used a novel active learning paradigm wherein 3- and 4-year old preschoolers could choose who to hear words from during word learning. Then, we tested whether participants seek out variability during word learning, how these talker variability choices influence word learning and whether actively making these choices results in different outcomes than passively receiving them. We find that preschoolers choose to hear words from multiple talkers, but that talker variability does not predict word learning. Taken together, our results suggest that preschool aged children do seek out variability, but that word learning outcomes are most predicted by their relative vocabulary sizes and not talker variability choices. These results inform theories on the roles of both talker variability and active learning in language learning.