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Forss S, Ciria A, Clark F, Galusca CL, Harrison D, Lee S. A transdisciplinary view on curiosity beyond linguistic humans: animals, infants, and artificial intelligence. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024; 99:979-998. [PMID: 38287201 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
Curiosity is a core driver for life-long learning, problem-solving and decision-making. In a broad sense, curiosity is defined as the intrinsically motivated acquisition of novel information. Despite a decades-long history of curiosity research and the earliest human theories arising from studies of laboratory rodents, curiosity has mainly been considered in two camps: 'linguistic human' and 'other'. This is despite psychology being heritable, and there are many continuities in cognitive capacities across the animal kingdom. Boundary-pushing cross-disciplinary debates on curiosity are lacking, and the relative exclusion of pre-linguistic infants and non-human animals has led to a scientific impasse which more broadly impedes the development of artificially intelligent systems modelled on curiosity in natural agents. In this review, we synthesize literature across multiple disciplines that have studied curiosity in non-verbal systems. By highlighting how similar findings have been produced across the separate disciplines of animal behaviour, developmental psychology, neuroscience, and computational cognition, we discuss how this can be used to advance our understanding of curiosity. We propose, for the first time, how features of curiosity could be quantified and therefore studied more operationally across systems: across different species, developmental stages, and natural or artificial agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Forss
- Collegium Helveticum, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Alejandra Ciria
- School of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Fay Clark
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Cristina-Loana Galusca
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, CNRS Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
| | - David Harrison
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Saein Lee
- Interdisciplinary Program of EcoCreative, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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2
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de Eccher M, Mundry R, Mani N. Children's subjective uncertainty-driven sampling behaviour. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 11:231283. [PMID: 38660597 PMCID: PMC11040239 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Revised: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 03/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Are children and adults sensitive to gaps in their knowledge, and do they actively elicit information to resolve such knowledge gaps? In a cross-situational word learning task, we asked 5-year-olds, 6- to 9-year-olds and adults to estimate their knowledge of newly learned word-object associations. We then examined whether participants preferentially sampled objects they reported not knowing the label in order to hear their labels again. We also examined whether such uncertainty-driven sampling behaviour led to improved learning. We found that all age groups were sensitive to gaps in their knowledge of the word-object associations, i.e. were more likely to say they had correctly indicated the label of an object when they were correct, relative to when they were incorrect. Furthermore, 6- to 9-year-olds and adults-but not 5-year-olds-were more likely to sample objects whose labels they reported not knowing. In other words, older children and adults displayed sampling behaviour directed at reducing knowledge gaps and uncertainty, while younger children did not. However, participants who displayed more uncertainty-driven sampling behaviour were not more accurate at test. Our findings underscore the role of uncertainty in driving 6- to 9-year-olds' and adults' sampling behaviour and speak to the mechanisms underlying previously reported performance boosts in active learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina de Eccher
- Psychology of Language Department, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37073, Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus “Primate Cognition”, Göttingen37077, Germany
| | - Roger Mundry
- Leibniz Science Campus “Primate Cognition”, Göttingen37077, Germany
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory,German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen37077, Germany
- Department for Primate Cognition, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen37077, Germany
| | - Nivedita Mani
- Psychology of Language Department, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37073, Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus “Primate Cognition”, Göttingen37077, Germany
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Madhavan R, Mani N. The quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by (caregivers' perception of) their child's interests. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 11:231677. [PMID: 38660594 PMCID: PMC11040257 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 02/15/2024] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
This current study examines the extent to which children's interests and caregivers' sensitivity to their children's interests are associated with the quality of caregiver-child interaction, and subsequent learning. Eighty-one caregiver-child dyads (24-30-month old children) completed an online shared book-reading task where caregivers and children read two e-books with pictures and descriptions of objects from different categories-one previously determined to be of low and one of high interest to the child (with one novel word-object mapping introduced in each book). We also obtained separate behavioural indices of children's interests and children's later recognition of newly introduced word-object mappings. Our findings highlight that the quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by children's interests and caregivers' perception of children's interests, although we find only limited overlap between our behavioural indices of children's interests and caregiver perception of children's interests. Neither of these factors predicted later novel word recognition. Thus, while the dynamics between higher quality of caregiver-child interaction, children's interests and learning remain inconclusive, caregivers and children appear to be more attentive, enthusiastic and engaged in reading about topics that (caregivers believe) interest the child. Furthermore, learning in itself seems to be successful, regardless of factors involved, through the mere task of shared book reading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajalakshmi Madhavan
- Psychology of Language Department, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37073, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen37077, Germany
| | - Nivedita Mani
- Psychology of Language Department, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37073, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen37077, Germany
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Frinsel FF, Trecca F, Christiansen MH. The Role of Feedback in the Statistical Learning of Language-Like Regularities. Cogn Sci 2024; 48:e13419. [PMID: 38436536 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2023] [Revised: 02/02/2024] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
In language learning, learners engage with their environment, incorporating cues from different sources. However, in lab-based experiments, using artificial languages, many of the cues and features that are part of real-world language learning are stripped away. In three experiments, we investigated the role of positive, negative, and mixed feedback on the gradual learning of language-like statistical regularities within an active guessing game paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants received deterministic feedback (100%), whereas probabilistic feedback (i.e., 75% or 50%) was introduced in Experiment 2. Finally, Experiment 3 explored the impact of mixed probabilistic feedback (33% positive, 33% negative, 33% no feedback). The results showed that cross-situational learning of words was observed without feedback, but participants were able to learn structural regularities of the miniature language only when feedback was provided. Interestingly, the presence of positive feedback was particularly helpful for the learner, promoting more in-depth learning of the artificial language.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Fabio Trecca
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
- TrygFonden's Centre of Child Research, Aarhus University
| | - Morten H Christiansen
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University
- School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
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Goupil L, Proust J. Curiosity as a metacognitive feeling. Cognition 2023; 231:105325. [PMID: 36434942 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2022] [Revised: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Curious information-seeking is known to be a key driver for learning, but characterizing this important psychological phenomenon remains a challenge. In this article, we argue that solving this challenge requires qualifying the relationships between metacognition and curiosity. The idea that curiosity is a metacognitive competence has been resisted: researchers have assumed both that young children and non-human animals can be genuinely curious, and that metacognition requires conceptual and culturally situated resources that are unavailable to young children and non-human animals. Here, we argue that this resistance is unwarranted given accumulating evidence that metacognition can be deployed procedurally, and we defend the view that curiosity is a metacognitive feeling. Our metacognitive view singles out two monitoring steps as a triggering condition for curiosity: evaluating one's own informational needs, and predicting the likelihood that explorations of the proximate environment afford significant information gains. We review empirical evidence and computational models of curiosity, and show that they fit well with this metacognitive account, while on the contrary, they remain difficult to explain by a competing account according to which curiosity is a basic attitude of questioning. Finally, we propose a new way to construe the relationships between curiosity and the human-specific communicative practice of questioning, discuss the issue of how children may learn to express their curiosity through interactions with others, and conclude by briefly exploring the implications of our proposal for educational practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louise Goupil
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France.
| | - Joëlle Proust
- Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
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Forest TA, Siegelman N, Finn AS. Attention Shifts to More Complex Structures With Experience. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:2059-2072. [PMID: 36219721 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221114055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Our environments are saturated with learnable information. What determines which of this information is prioritized for limited attentional resources? Although previous studies suggest that learners prefer medium-complexity information, here we argue that what counts as medium should change as someone learns an input's structure. Specifically, we examined the hypothesis that attention is directed toward more complicated structures as learners gain more experience with the environment. College students watched four simultaneous streams of information that varied in complexity. RTs to intermittent search trials (Experiment 1, N = 75) and eye tracking (Experiment 2, N = 45) indexed where participants attended during the experiment. Using two participant- and trial-specific measures of complexity, we demonstrated that participants attended to increasingly complex streams over time. Individual differences in structure learning also predicted attention allocation, with better learners attending to complex structures earlier in learning, suggesting that the ability to prioritize different information over time is related to learning success.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Amy S Finn
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
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7
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Understanding why infant-directed speech supports learning: A dynamic attention perspective. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2022.101047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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8
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Baer C, Kidd C. Learning with certainty in childhood. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:887-896. [PMID: 36085134 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.07.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2022] [Revised: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Learners use certainty to guide learning. They maintain existing beliefs when certain, but seek further information when they feel uninformed. Here, we review developmental evidence that this metacognitive strategy does not require reportable processing. Uncertainty prompts nonverbal human infants and nonhuman animals to engage in strategies like seeking help, searching for additional information, or opting out. Certainty directs children's attention and active learning strategies and provides a common metric for comparing and integrating conflicting beliefs across people. We conclude that certainty is a continuous, domain-general signal of belief quality even early in life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolyn Baer
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Celeste Kidd
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
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Dautriche I, Goupil L, Smith K, Rabagliati H. Two-Year-Olds' Eye Movements Reflect Confidence in Their Understanding of Words. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:1842-1856. [PMID: 36126649 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221105208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We studied the fundamental issue of whether children evaluate the reliability of their language interpretation, that is, their confidence in understanding words. In two experiments, 2-year-olds (Experiment 1: N = 50; Experiment 2: N = 60) saw two objects and heard one of them being named; both objects were then hidden behind screens and children were asked to look toward the named object, which was eventually revealed. When children knew the label used, they showed increased postdecision persistence after a correct compared with an incorrect anticipatory look, a marker of confidence in word comprehension (Experiment 1). When interacting with an unreliable speaker, children showed accurate word comprehension but reduced confidence in the accuracy of their own choice, indicating that children's confidence estimates are influenced by social information (Experiment 2). Thus, by the age of 2 years, children can estimate their confidence during language comprehension, long before they can talk about their linguistic skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabelle Dautriche
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Aix-Marseille University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).,Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille University, CNRS
| | - Louise Goupil
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS.,Department of Psychology, University of East London
| | - Kenny Smith
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh
| | - Hugh Rabagliati
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh
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Ruba AL, Pollak SD, Saffran JR. Acquiring Complex Communicative Systems: Statistical Learning of Language and Emotion. Top Cogn Sci 2022; 14:432-450. [PMID: 35398974 PMCID: PMC9465951 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12612] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2011] [Revised: 03/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
During the early postnatal years, most infants rapidly learn to understand two naturally evolved communication systems: language and emotion. While these two domains include different types of content knowledge, it is possible that similar learning processes subserve their acquisition. In this review, we compare the learnable statistical regularities in language and emotion input. We then consider how domain-general learning abilities may underly the acquisition of language and emotion, and how this process may be constrained in each domain. This comparative developmental approach can advance our understanding of how humans learn to communicate with others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley L. Ruba
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of Wisconsin – Madison
| | - Seth D. Pollak
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of Wisconsin – Madison
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11
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Gaining access to the unknown: Preschoolers privilege unknown information as the target of their questions about verbs. J Exp Child Psychol 2022; 217:105358. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2021] [Revised: 12/20/2021] [Accepted: 12/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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12
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Lapidow E, Killeen I, Walker CM. Learning to recognize uncertainty vs. recognizing uncertainty to learn: Confidence judgments and exploration decisions in preschoolers. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13178. [PMID: 34596300 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2021] [Revised: 09/22/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
During exploration, young children often show an intuitive sensitivity to uncertainty, despite their strong tendency towards overconfidence in their explicit judgments. Here, we examine the development of children's explicit and implicit recognition of uncertainty using the same stimuli. We presented 4- and 5-year-olds with objects that varied in their amount of perceptual occlusion, and assessed their ability to distinguish among them using two types of measures. Experiment 1 used a traditional 3-point confidence scale to examine children's explicit uncertainty judgments. We compared these confidence judgments before and after they observed disconfirming evidence, to assess the impact of this experience on their acknowledgement of uncertainty in later trials. Experiment 2 examined children's exploration preference as a measure of implicit sensitivity to uncertainty. Our results indicate that children intuitively recognize gaps in their knowledge, and that this implicit recognition may be leveraged to support their explicit judgments. Specifically, we found that children's baseline confidence judgments improved significantly following the presentation of disconfirming evidence. Furthermore, when asked to make exploration decisions about the same set of objects, children showed a spontaneous sensitivity to uncertainty, prior to any evidence. Taken together, these results suggest that children's exploration behavior may be used as an early developing measure of uncertainty control and raise the intriguing possibility that the experience of unexpected outcomes may play a role in the development of metacognition.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Isabella Killeen
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, USA.,University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, USA
| | - Caren M Walker
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, USA
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Chen CH, Houston DM, Yu C. Parent-Child Joint Behaviors in Novel Object Play Create High-Quality Data for Word Learning. Child Dev 2021; 92:1889-1905. [PMID: 34463350 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
This research takes a dyadic approach to study early word learning and focuses on toddlers' (N = 20, age: 17-23 months) information seeking and parents' information providing behaviors and the ways the two are coupled in real-time parent-child interactions. Using head-mounted eye tracking, this study provides the first detailed comparison of children's and their parents' behavioral and attentional patterns in two free-play contexts: one with novel objects with to-be-learned names (Learning condition) and the other with familiar objects with known names (Play condition). Children and parents in the Learning condition modified their individual and joint behaviors when encountering novel objects with to-be-learned names, which created clearer signals that reduced referential ambiguity and potentially facilitated word learning.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Chen Yu
- The University of Texas at Austin
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14
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Zhang Y, Yurovsky D, Yu C. Cross-situational Learning From Ambiguous Egocentric Input Is a Continuous Process: Evidence Using the Human Simulation Paradigm. Cogn Sci 2021; 45:e13010. [PMID: 34213788 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2020] [Revised: 04/29/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Recent laboratory experiments have shown that both infant and adult learners can acquire word-referent mappings using cross-situational statistics. The vast majority of the work on this topic has used unfamiliar objects presented on neutral backgrounds as the visual contexts for word learning. However, these laboratory contexts are much different than the real-world contexts in which learning occurs. Thus, the feasibility of generalizing cross-situational learning beyond the laboratory is in question. Adapting the Human Simulation Paradigm, we conducted a series of experiments examining cross-situational learning from children's egocentric videos captured during naturalistic play. Focusing on individually ambiguous naming moments that naturally occur during toy play, we asked how statistical learning unfolds in real time through accumulating cross-situational statistics in naturalistic contexts. We found that even when learning situations were individually ambiguous, learners' performance gradually improved over time. This improvement was driven in part by learners' use of partial knowledge acquired from previous learning situations, even when they had not yet discovered correct word-object mappings. These results suggest that word learning is a continuous process by means of real-time information integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yayun Zhang
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin
| | | | - Chen Yu
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin.,Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington
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