Department of Psychology

When children learn a given word meaning, they learn an often arbitrary link between a sound pattern and some object, action or abstract concept. But more important, they also learn a conventional tool that enables them to communicate with other members of their linguistic community about that object, action or abstract concept. Our research is examining the extent to which the cognitive systems that support word learning are driven by a special motivation to learn words that are most likely to be effective communicative tools. In particular, we are looking at:

• The kind of information that parents provide to indicate that a word is, or is not, likely to be shared.

• Children’s sensitivity to the kinds of information that parents typically provide when learning words themselves.

• The cognitive mechanisms that are implicated as children learn, or block learning, words in line with their shared communicative value.

In addition to this research, we have other projects in word learning that investigate questions such as:

• Are children’s applications of word learning strategies affected by the extent to which their parents’ labelling practices dovetail with those strategies?
  
• What are the neural bases of rapid word learning in young children and adults?
• How do children coordinate pragmatic, syntactic, and conceptual information in word learning? Does the coordination of information change at different ages?