ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
The infant's view redefines the problem of referential uncertainty in early word learning.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Close enough isn't good enough in word learning: Successful cross-situational word mappings are semantically independent of previous mappings.Journal of memory and language · 2026Article
- Lexical Leveraging in Novel Word Learning: Different Semantic Properties Support Learners at Different Stages of Development.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Contingent behavior during caregiver-child interaction improves the quality of word learning opportunities.IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning. IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning · 2025Article
- Overlooked Input for Word Learning: Examining the Role of Attention on Non-Target Objects During Object Labeling.IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning. IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning · 2025Article
- Article
- Speech Stream Composition Affects Statistical Learning: Behavioral and Neural Evidence.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Information Sources for Word Meaning in Children's Picture Books: A Human Simulation Paradigm Study.Journal of cognition and development : official journal of the Cognitive Development Society · 2025Article
- Development in the comprehension of phonetically reduced spoken words.CogSci ... Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Cognitive Science Society (U.S.). Conference · 2025Article
- Ecological brain: reframing the study of human behaviour and cognition.Royal Society open science · 2024Review
- Consistency and variability in multimodal parent-child social interaction: An at-home study using head-mounted eye trackers.Developmental psychology · 2024Article
- The effects of bilingualism on children's cross-situational word learning under different variability conditions.Journal of experimental child psychology · 2023Article
- Proactive or reactive? Neural oscillatory insight into the leader-follower dynamics of early infant-caregiver interaction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Speech Segmentation and Cross-Situational Word Learning in Parallel.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2023Article
- Studying the Developing Brain in Real-World Contexts: Moving From Castles in the Air to Castles on the Ground.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2022Review
- Parent Speech in Free Play Is Guided by Infant Attention, But Organized by Object Familiarity.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant StudiesArticle
- Selective Attention in Early Word Learning: An Eye-Tracking Study on Viewing Naturalistic Egocentric Scenes.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant StudiesArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The learning of first object names is deemed a hard problem due to the uncertainty inherent in mapping a heard name to the intended referent in a cluttered and variable world. However, human infants readily solve this problem. Despite considerable theoretical discussion, relatively little is known about the uncertainty infants face in the real world. We used head-mounted eye tracking during parent-infant toy play and quantified the uncertainty by measuring the distribution of infant attention to the potential referents when a parent named both familiar and unfamiliar toy objects. The results show that infant gaze upon hearing an object name is often directed to a single referent which is equally likely to be a wrong competitor or the intended target. This bimodal gaze distribution clarifies and redefines the uncertainty problem and constrains possible solutions.
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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.