Evidence against a dedicated system for word learning in children

Lori Markson and Paul Bloom
Additional contact information
Lori Markson: University of Arizona
Paul Bloom: University of Arizona

Nature, 1997, vol. 385, issue 6619, 813-815

Abstract: Abstract Children can learn aspects of the meaning of a new word on the basis of only a few incidental exposures and can retain this knowledge for a long period—a process dubbed 'fast mapping'1–8. It is often maintained that fast mapping is the result of a dedicated language mechanism, but it is possible that this same capacity might apply in domains other than language learning. Here we present two experiments in which three- and four-year-old children and adults were taught a novel name and a novel fact about an object, and were tested on their retention immediately, after a 1-week delay or after a 1-month delay. Our findings show that fast mapping is not limited to word learning, suggesting that the capacity to learn and retain new words is the result of learning and memory abilities that are not specific to language.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/385813a0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:385:y:1997:i:6619:d:10.1038_385813a0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/385813a0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().