Word Learning
Word Learning - Related Videos
05:18
Mutual Exclusivity: How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
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2023
Source: Laboratories of Nicholaus Noles and Judith Danovitch—University of Louisville Humans are different from other animals in many ways, but perhaps the most important differentiating factor is their ability to use language. Other animals can communicate and even understand and use language in limited ways, but trying to teach human language to a chimp or a dog takes a great deal of time and effort. In contrast, young humans acquire their native language easily, and they learn linguistic...
12:49
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition
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Cited by 32 •
2019
Here, we describe a protocol for using transcranial direct current stimulation for psycho- and neurolinguistic experiments aimed at studying, in a naturalistic yet fully controlled way, the role of cortical areas of the human brain in word learning, and a comprehensive set of behavioral procedures for assessing the outcomes.
10:07
Using Learning Outcome Measures to assess Doctoral Nursing Education
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Cited by 2 •
2010
The structure and process for measuring student learning outcomes through customizable assessment rubrics is discussed and applied to a doctoral nursing education program.
10:06
An Introduction to Learning and Memory
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2023
Learning is the process of acquiring new information and memory is the retention or storage of that information. Different types of learning, such as non-associative and associative learning, and different types of memory, such as long-term and short-term memory, have been associated with human behaviors. Studying these components in detail helps behavioral scientists understand the neural mechanisms behind these two complex phenomena. JoVE's overview on learning and memory introduces common...
06:02
Visual Statistical Learning
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2023
Source: Laboratory of Jonathan Flombaum—Johns Hopkins University The visual environment contains massive amounts of information involving the relations between objects in space and time; certain objects are more likely to appear in the vicinity of other objects. Learning these regularities can support a wide array of visual processing, including object recognition. Unsurprisingly, then, humans appear to learn these regularities automatically, quickly, and without conscious awareness. The name...
FAQs
An unfamiliar form becomes easier to interpret when surrounding context narrows its possible meaning, social information indicates what a speaker intends, and recurring patterns in speech reveal which forms tend to occur together. These sources of evidence can operate together rather than independently, helping learners connect a new word with a concept and identify regularities that support later learning.
Attention influences whether learners notice a new form and its surrounding evidence, while prior knowledge provides a framework for interpreting the concept. Memory then helps preserve the association so it can be accessed later. These factors explain why people with different experiences may learn the same vocabulary differently and why individual learning outcomes vary.
Repeated exposure gives learners additional opportunities to encounter a word’s form and meaning, while memory strengthens the association across time. This matters for retention because words are not equally likely to remain available for later retrieval. Studying retention therefore helps psychologists examine why some vocabulary becomes durable and how experience contributes to stable knowledge of words.
Comparing children and adults allows psychologists to examine how vocabulary is built across different stages of development rather than treating learning as uniform. Such comparisons can reveal how attention, prior knowledge, contextual clues, and repeated exposure contribute to acquisition in different learners. The findings help refine theories of language development and communication.
Researchers can consider more than whether a learner has encountered a word. They can examine the connection between its form and meaning, whether the word is represented in memory, and whether it can be retrieved later. This perspective links vocabulary growth with underlying psychological processes and helps distinguish temporary exposure from more durable learning.
Evidence about contextual clues, social information, attention, prior knowledge, repeated exposure, and memory can inform educational approaches to vocabulary and literacy. It also supports interventions for language-learning difficulties by identifying processes that may require additional support. In psychology, these applications connect basic research on acquisition and retention with practical goals in communication and learning.