The Effects of Learning and Retrieval Contexts on Cross-situational Word Learning

Natural linguistic environments usually provide structured input, in that words that are semantically-related are likely to occur in the same situation. The current study examined whether this kind of semantically-themed structure facilitated cross-situational word learning. Results from two experiments consistently showed that participants had higher performance in semantically-themed learning contexts. In contrast, themed retrieval contexts did not affect performance. Our work suggests that learners' ability to use statistical information to acquire word-to-object mappings is enhanced when learning is put in a more naturalistic and structured context.