Department of Cognitive Science, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2013 Jun;115(2):273-96. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.02.004. Epub 2013 Apr 2.
To test general and specific processes of symbol learning, 4- and 5-year-old children learned three kinds of abstract associates for novel objects: words, facts, and pictograms. To test fast mapping (i.e., one-trial learning) and subsequent learning, comprehension was tested after each of four exposures. Production was also tested, as was children's tendency to generalize learned items to new objects in the same taxon. To test for a bias toward mutually exclusive associations, children learned either one-to-one or many-to-many mappings. In Experiment 1, children learned words, facts (with or without incidental novel words), or pictograms. In Experiment 2, children learned words or pictograms. In both of these experiments, children learned words slower than facts and pictograms. Pictograms and facts were generalized more systematically than words, but only in Experiment 1. Children learned one-to-one mappings faster only in Experiment 2, when cognitive load was increased. In Experiment 3, 3- and 4-year-olds were taught facts (with novel words), words, and pictograms. Children learned facts faster than words; however, they remembered all items equally well a week later. The results suggest that word learning follows non-specialized memory and associative learning processes.
为了测试符号学习的一般和特定过程，4 岁和 5 岁的儿童学习了三种用于新物体的抽象联想：单词、事实和象形图。为了测试快速映射（即一次学习）和后续学习，在四次暴露后测试了理解。还测试了产生，以及儿童将所学项目推广到同一分类群中的新对象的倾向。为了测试对互斥联想的偏见，儿童学习了一对一或多对多映射。在实验 1 中，儿童学习单词、事实（有或没有偶然出现的新单词）或象形图。在实验 2 中，儿童学习单词或象形图。在这两个实验中，儿童学习单词的速度都比事实和象形图慢。象形图和事实比单词更系统地推广，但仅在实验 1 中。只有在实验 2 中，当认知负荷增加时，儿童才能更快地学习一对一映射。在实验 3 中，3 岁和 4 岁的儿童学习事实（带有新单词）、单词和象形图。儿童学习事实的速度比单词快；然而，一周后他们同样很好地记住了所有项目。结果表明，单词学习遵循非专门化的记忆和联想学习过程。
