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What can be learned from something's not being named
W E Merriman1, J M Marazita, L H Jarvis
1Department of Psychology, Kent State University, OH 44242, USA.
Child Development
|December 1, 1995
Summary
Children avoid labeling objects that were present but not named during initial word learning. This Nominal Passover Effect supports the Exhaustive Reference Principle in early language acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Linguistics
Background:
- Children's word learning is complex, involving generalization and understanding referential intent.
- Previous research highlights various cues children use to map novel words to objects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a new word-learning phenomenon: the Nominal Passover Effect.
- To propose and test the Exhaustive Reference Principle as an explanation for this effect.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: 60 three-year-olds learned novel labels for objects; tested generalization.
- Study 2: Replicated the effect with 48 children using indefinite reference training.
- Control groups assessed object preference and perceptual similarity biases.
Main Results:
- Children in forced-choice tests selected the untrained object less often, demonstrating the Nominal Passover Effect.
- This effect occurred regardless of whether the ignored object was completely omitted or referred to with pronouns.
- The effect counteracted generalization based on perceptual similarity and was not observed in free-choice tests.
Conclusions:
- The Nominal Passover Effect shows children infer that an object not named during training is not a valid referent for the novel word.
- This finding supports the Exhaustive Reference Principle: novel generic words are expected to apply to all perceived exemplars in a situation.
- The study reveals a nuanced aspect of early word learning, demonstrating how referential exclusion influences generalization.