ReviewCognitive neuroscience
Little evidence for Fast Mapping (FM) in adults: A review and discussion.
Review in Cognitive neuroscience. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- The cognitive neuroscience of memory representations.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Lexical integration of novel words learned through natural reading.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Article
- Variation in encoding context benefits item recognition.Memory & cognition · 2025Article
- Article
- Neurophysiological evidence of single-shot semantic mapping in the developing brain.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- EPS mid-career prize: An integrated framework for the learning, recognition and interpretation of words.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2024Review
- Do Children (and Adults) Benefit From a Prediction Error Boost in One-Shot Word Learning?Journal of cognition · 2024Article
- More Stable Memory Retention of Novel Words Learned from Fast Mapping than from Explicit Encoding.Journal of psycholinguistic research · 2023Article
- Vocal communication across cultures: theoretical and methodological issues.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Something old, something new: A review of the literature on sleep-related lexicalization of novel words in adults.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2021Review
- Rapid acquisition through fast mapping: stable memory over time and role of prior knowledge.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Perirhinal circuits for memory processing.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2019Review
- Investigating Fast Mapping Task Components: No Evidence for the Role of Semantic Referent nor Semantic Inference in Healthy Adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- Cross-Situational Statistical Learning of New Words Despite Bilateral Hippocampal Damage and Severe Amnesia.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2019Article
- Fast mappers, slow learners: Word learning without hippocampus is slow and sparse irrespective of methodology.Cognitive neuroscienceArticle
- Article
- Naïve to expert: Considering the role of previous knowledge in memory.Brain and neuroscience advancesReview
- Fast mapping is a laboratory task, not a cognitive capacity.Cognitive neuroscienceArticle
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Conventional memory theory proposes that the hippocampus is initially responsible for encoding new information, before this responsibility is gradually transferred to the neocortex. Therefore, a report in 2011 by Sharon et al. of hippocampal-independent learning in humans was notable. These authors reported normal learning of new object-name associations under a Fast Mapping (FM) procedure in adults with hippocampal damage, who were amnesic according to more conventional explicit memorisation procedures. FM is an incidental learning paradigm, inspired by vocabulary acquisition in children, which is hypothesised to allow rapid, cortical-based memory formation. In the years since the original report, there has been, understandably, a growing interest in adult FM, not only because of its theoretical importance, but also because of its potential to help rehabilitate individuals with memory problems. We review the FM literature in individuals with amnesia and in healthy adults, using both explicit and implicit memory measures. Contrary to other recent reviews, we conclude that the evidence for FM in adults is weak, and restraint is needed before assuming the phenomenon exists.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.