Associative word learning predicts later vocabulary development: a longitudinal investigation

Le résumé fourni par la source

Prior research has demonstrated the relationship between children’s early processing and learning abilities with their language and cognitive skills later in life. However, the extent to which children’s early non-native language learning ability can predict later linguistic performance remains unclear. Thus, this longitudinal study examined whether associative word learning ability in the first year after birth was predictive of their later linguistic performance. Fifty-one typically developing Australian English-learning first-year infants participated in an associative word learning task in which their ability to associate non-native tones with novel objects was examined. When participants reached 6–7 years, their vocabulary scores were assessed via the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (fourth edition). Although no robust associative word learning was observed in infancy, a positive correlation between infants’ learning outcomes and later vocabulary size was observed. As the learning targets were non-native to infants, we argue that the ability to associate new sounds with new information may serve as one of the learning mechanisms that drives children’s word development across ages in addition to language-specific mechanisms and language-induced developmental changes.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.