Previous research on lexical development has aimed to identify the factors that enable
accurate initial word‐referent mappings based on the assumption that the accuracy of initial …

Learning word–referent mappings is complex because the word and its referent tend to co-
occur with multiple other words and potential referents. Such complexity has led to …

Word learning involves massive ambiguity, since in a particular encounter with a novel word,
there are an unlimited number of potential referents. One proposal for how learners …

Intuitively, the accuracy of initial word‐referent mappings should be positively correlated with
the outcome of learning. Yet recent evidence suggests an inverse effect of initial accuracy in …

We report three eyetracking experiments that examine the learning procedure used by
adults as they pair novel words and visually presented referents over a sequence of …

First word learning should be difficult because any pairing of a word and scene presents the
learner with an infinite number of possible referents. Accordingly, theorists of children's rapid …

Recent evidence shows that infants can learn words and referents by aggregating
ambiguous information across situations to discern the underlying word-referent mappings …

Previous research suggests that competition among the objects present during referent
selection influences young children's ability to learn words in fast mapping tasks. The …

How are languages learned, and to what extent are learning mechanisms similar in infant
native-language (L1) and adult second-language (L2) acquisition? In terms of vocabulary …

Do children learn a new word by tracking co-occurrences between words and referents
across multiple instances (“cross-situational learning” models), or is word-learning a “one …