TY  - JOUR
A1  - Korochkina, Maria
A1  - Bürki-Foschini, Audrey Damaris
A1  - Nickels, Lyndsey
T1  - Apples and oranges
BT  - how does learning context affect novel word learning?
JF  - Journal of memory and language : JML
N2  - Despite scarce empirical evidence, introducing new vocabulary in semantic categories has long been standard in second language teaching. We examined the effect of learning context on encoding, immediate recall and integration of new vocabulary into semantic memory by contrasting categorically related (novel names for familiar concepts blocked by semantic category) and unrelated (mixed semantic categories) learning contexts. Two learning sessions were conducted 24 hours apart, with each participant exposed to both contexts. Subsequently, a test phase examined picture naming, translation and picture-word interference tasks. Compared to the unrelated context, the categorically related context resulted in poorer naming accuracy in the learning phase, slower response latencies at the immediate recall tasks and greater semantic interference in the picture-word interference task (picture naming in L1 with semantically related novel word distractors). We develop a theoretical account of word learning that attributes observed differences to episodic rather than semantic memory.
KW  - Word learning
KW  - Learning context
KW  - Episodic memory
KW  - Semantic memory
KW  - Integration
KW  - Word production
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2021.104246
SN  - 0749-596X
SN  - 1096-0821
VL  - 120
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hilton, Matt
A1  - Twomey, Katherine Elizabeth
A1  - Westermann, Gert
T1  - Taking their eye off the ball
BT  - how shyness affects children’s attention during word learning
JF  - Journal of experimental child psychology
N2  - The current study tests the hypothesis that shy children’s reduced word learning is partly due to an effect of shyness on attention during object labeling. A sample of 20- and 26-month-old children (N = 32) took part in a looking-while-listening task in which they saw sets of familiar and novel objects while hearing familiar or novel labels. Overall, children increased attention to familiar objects when hearing their labels, and they divided their attention equally between the target and competitors when hearing novel labels. Critically, shyness reduced attention to the target object regardless of whether the heard label was novel or familiar. When children’s retention of the novel word–object mappings was tested after a delay, it was found that children who showed increased attention to novel objects during labeling showed better retention. Taken together, these findings suggest that shyer children perform less well than their less shy peers on measures of word learning because their attention to the target object is dampened. Thus, this work presents evidence that shyness modulates the low-level processes of visual attention that unfold during word learning.
KW  - Word learning
KW  - Shyness
KW  - Language development
KW  - Temperament
KW  - Individual differences
KW  - Referent Selection
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.01.023
SN  - 0022-0965
SN  - 1096-0457
VL  - 183
SP  - 134
EP  - 145
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - New York
ER  -