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Predict and redirect: Prediction errors support children's word learning.

ABSTRACT: According to prediction-based learning theories, erroneous predictions support learning. However, empirical evidence for a relation between prediction error and children's language learning is currently lacking. Here we investigated whether and how prediction errors influence children's learning of novel words. We hypothesized that word learning would vary as a function of 2 factors: the extent to which children generate predictions, and the extent to which children redirect attention in response to errors. Children were tested in a novel word learning task, which used eye tracking to measure (a) real-time semantic predictions to familiar referents, (b) attention redirection following prediction errors, and (c) learning of novel referents. Results indicated that predictions and prediction errors interdependently supported novel word learning, via children's efficient redirection of attention. This study provides a developmental evaluation of prediction-based theories and suggests that erroneous predictions play a mechanistic role in children's language learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Reuter T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6876992 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Predict and redirect: Prediction errors support children's word learning.

Reuter Tracy T Borovsky Arielle A Lew-Williams Casey C

Developmental psychology 20190516 8

According to prediction-based learning theories, erroneous predictions support learning. However, empirical evidence for a relation between prediction error and children's language learning is currently lacking. Here we investigated whether and how prediction errors influence children's learning of novel words. We hypothesized that word learning would vary as a function of 2 factors: the extent to which children generate predictions, and the extent to which children redirect attention in respons ...[more]

PMID: 31094555

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Project description:Communication with young children is often multimodal in nature, involving, for example, language and actions. The simultaneous presentation of information from both domains may boost language learning by highlighting the connection between an object and a word, owing to temporal overlap in the presentation of multimodal input. However, the overlap is not merely temporal but can also covary in the extent to which particular actions co-occur with particular words and objects, e.g. carers typically produce a hopping action when talking about rabbits and a snapping action for crocodiles. The frequency with which actions and words co-occurs in the presence of the referents of these words may also impact young children's word learning. We, therefore, examined the extent to which consistency in the co-occurrence of particular actions and words impacted children's learning of novel word-object associations. Children (18 months, 30 months and 36-48 months) and adults were presented with two novel objects and heard their novel labels while different actions were performed on these objects, such that the particular actions and word-object pairings always co-occurred (Consistent group) or varied across trials (Inconsistent group). At test, participants saw both objects and heard one of the labels to examine whether participants recognized the target object upon hearing its label. Growth curve models revealed that 18-month-olds did not learn words for objects in either condition, and 30-month-old and 36- to 48-month-old children learned words for objects only in the Consistent condition, in contrast to adults who learned words for objects independent of the actions presented. Thus, consistency in the multimodal input influenced word learning in early childhood but not in adulthood. In terms of a dynamic systems account of word learning, our study shows how multimodal learning settings interact with the child's perceptual abilities to shape the learning experience.

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Predict and redirect: Prediction errors support children's word learning.

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Predict and redirect: Prediction errors support children's word learning.

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