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The role of word frequency and phonological neighborhood density in children's emerging lexicons| old_uid | 9876 |
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| title | The role of word frequency and phonological neighborhood density in children's emerging lexicons |
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| start_date | 2011/04/22 |
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| schedule | 10h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | Lexical and sublexical characteristics (statistical cues) of words are known to affect the rate and accuracy of word processing in adults and children. In adults, words that come from sparse phonological neighborhoods are recognised more accurately and faster than words that come from dense phonological neighborhoods. The explanation for this phenomena is that target words from dense neighborhoods activate many phonological competitors, delaying rate of response and reducing accuracy of word identification. Conversely, words from dense phonological neighborhoods are accessed (retrieved) faster and more accurately than words from sparse neighborhoods, suggesting that multiple acitvations are facilitative of word production. While sparse is good for word recognition, dense is good for word production. The direction of influence in child word recognition and production is not so clear with equivocal results across studies. Our research explroes the relative roles of word frequency and phonological neighborbood density in emerging lexicons. Results from English, French and Danish are presented. Children who struggle to develop a lexicon ('late talkers') appear to use these cues differently from their typically developing peers. Our hypothesis is that reduced verbal short-term memory ability contributes to a period of Extended Statistical Learning in late talkers. |
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| responsibles | Kern |
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