Lessons from television: children's word learning when viewing

The study investigated if preschoolers can learn novel words when viewing television and if the learning is influenced by age or type of word. 61 preschoolers, ages 3 and 5, were assigned to either an experimental or control group. They viewed a 15-min television program, featuring 20 different novel words, 5 each in the 4 categories of object, action, attribute, and affective-state words. Comprehension was tested before and after viewing. The experimental group performed better than the controls for object, action, and attribute words. 5-year-olds were more accurate than 3-year-olds and gained relatively more from the experimental condition. The easiest words to learn were object and attribute words. The results are relevant for studies of media effects and accounts of preschoolers' "fast mapping" of new words.     

The rebirth of children's learning

Learning is a central part of children's lives, but the study of learning is a rather peripheral part of the field of cognitive development. Fortunately, this situation is starting to change; recent theoretical and methodological advances have sparked renewed interest in children's learning. This renewed interest has already yielded a set of consistent and interesting findings regarding how children learn, as well as intriguing proposals regarding the mechanisms that underlie the learning. Increasing our focus on children's learning promises to yield practical benefits as well as a more exciting field of cognitive development.     

Delay-induced bias in children's memory for location

Two experiments examined how imposing a delay between learning and reproducing locations influences children's memory for location. In Experiment 1, ninety-six 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children and adults learned the locations of 20 objects in an open, square box divided into four regions by opaque walls. During test, participants attempted to place the objects in the correct locations without the aid of the dots that had marked the locations or the boundaries that had divided the space. The test phase began either immediately following learning or following a 12-min delay. As predicted by the Category-Adjustment model, bias toward category centers increased significantly following an intervening delay. Moreover, the magnitude of categorical bias followed a systematic U-shaped developmental pattern. Results from a second study (N = 72) replicated this developmental pattern. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding how children and adults remember locations.     

日语助词在日语学习中的重要性

语言是人类生存交往的工具,随着经济全球化步伐的加快,人们越来越清楚地认识到只有高度掌握语言的运用能力,才能在激烈的社会竞争中抢占先机。本文从日语助词的分类入手,就日语助词的作用做了简单介绍,就常用助词的用法做了概括论述,以期为广发日语爱好者提供一些参考。     

Reorganizing the lexicon by learning a new word: Japanese children's interpretation of the meaning of a new word for a familiar artifact

This research investigated how children interpret the meaning of a new word associated with a familiar artifact. The existing literature has shown that syntactic form-class information plays an important role in making this kind of inference. However, this information is not available to Japanese children, because Japanese language does not have a grammatical distinction between count nouns and mass nouns, proper nouns and common nouns, or singular and plural. In Study 1, 12 three-year-old monolingual Japanese children were tested to examine whether they interpreted a new noun associated with a familiar artifact to be a material name or a new label for the object. They interpreted the new word as a new category label for the object, rather than as a name for the material. How children related the new category to the old familiar one was then examined in Studies 2 and 3. The results of Study 2, in which 24 three-year-olds participated, showed that children could flexibly shift between two interpretations using shape information. When the named object had a typical shape for the familiar category, they mapped the new word to a subordinate category. In contrast, when the shape of the named object was atypical, they mapped the new word to a new category that was mutually exclusive to the familiar category by excluding the named object from the familiar category. In Study 3, 12 three-year-olds were tested to examine relative importance of shape and functional information in this inference process. The results of the three studies suggest that children flexibly recruit clues from multiple sources, but the cluesare weighed in hierarchical order so that they can determine the single most plausible solution in a given situation when different clues suggest different solutions.     

The effectiveness of multimedia programmes in children's vocabulary learning

The present experiment investigated the effect of three different presentation modes in children's vocabulary learning with a self-guided multimedia programmes. Participants were 135 third and fourth grade children who read a short English language story presented by a computer programme. For 12 key (previously unknown) words in the story, children received verbal annotations (written translation), visual annotations (picture representing the word), or both. Recall of word translations was better for children who only received verbal annotations than for children who received simultaneously visual and verbal annotations or visual annotations only. Results support previous research about cognitive load in e-learning environments, and show that children's learning processes are hindered by limited working memory. This finding implies a challenge for multimedia programmes designed for children and based on self-regulated learning.     

The role of topic‐related background knowledge in visual attention to illustration and children's word learning during shared book reading

The purpose of this study was to examine how background knowledge of a topic may influence children's attention to different elements of storybook illustrations and how that influences word learning. Forty‐one kindergarten students were administered a test about a familiar topic (i.e., birds). Participants were then read either a fictional story about a familiar topic (birds) or a fictional story about a novel topic (wugs) on an eye‐tracker monitor. Results suggest that, for children who heard the familiar story, those who knew more about the category were faster to orient to the illustration of the novel word than children with lower background knowledge. Accordingly, children who were faster to orient to the illustration were more likely to learn the word. These results may suggest that one mechanism by which background knowledge improves implicit learning in shared‐book reading contexts is by guiding attention to the named elements of the illustrations.     

The development of children's ideas about others' difficulties in learning

In this paper, Professor Ann Lewis, of the School of Education, University of Birmingham, reviews the literature and current research on pupils' perceptions of others' difficulties in learning. She focuses, in particular, on three strands: children's perceptions about other people and their traits; children as 'naïve' biologists, attempting to explain growth and development in others; and children's responses to and use of cues based on achievement and ideas about ability. In a wide-ranging discussion, this article explores work on theory of mind and notes the different ways in which children explain learning difficulties in others at various ages. In her conclusion, Professor Lewis makes three key points: there is a need to supplement experimental work in this area with good quality, classroom-based studies; more effort should be devoted to finding ways of accessing children's views and perceptions in authentic and reliable ways; and staff working in inclusive classrooms are ideally placed to contribute to the development of research in this area.     

Motivated learning: bias in appraisals

The study of motivation has been shadowed by a paradox. Common observations and teacher reports lead to the conclusion that high grade-point average is linked to high motivation and commitment. There is a lot of empirical evidence both from the laboratory and from classroom settings that illustrates the role played by affect in cognitive functioning. However, up to now motivational variables have failed to achieve a predictive value in learning outcome and in grade-point average mainly because these variables have been restricted to value-related information about the tasks and to the pupil's perception of his chances of success.A framework is proposed in which learning outcome is conceptualized both as a learning experience associated with positive and negative emotions and as an increment in knowledge and skill. At any one time, learners pursue two major goals, viz. gaining more proficiency and skill and maintaining or restoring their well-being. Empirical evidence is presented to support the view that meaningful learning should be conceptualized both in terms of a pupil's (1) competence for learning and (2) satisfaction with the learning opportunity.     

Supporting family conversations and children's STEM learning in a children's museum

This study tested the effectiveness of a facilitated educational program in a museum for promoting family conversations and children's learning about STEM. A sample of 130 families (71 European-American; 33 African-American; and 26 Hispanic-American) with children M age = 6.42 years were observed in a building construction exhibit. Prior to building, families were randomly assigned to conditions that varied in terms of the instructions about a key engineering principle and elaborative question-asking they received. Conversation instruction resulted in adults’ asking double the number of Wh-questions compared to families who did not receive the instruction. The building instruction was important in promoting increases in adults’ STEM-related talk during the building activity, as well as in the children's STEM talk when prompted for information about what they had learned. The effects of the instructions did not vary by families’ ethnic background. Implications for facilitating family conversations and children's learning related to STEM are discussed.     

Sound symbolic word learning in written context

Sound symbolism is the notion that the relation between word sounds and word meaning is not arbitrary for all words, but rather there is a subset of words in the world’s languages for which sounds and their symbols have some degree of correspondence. This research investigates sound symbolism as a possible means of gaining semantic knowledge of unknown words within written context. Two studies assessed adults’ expressive knowledge of word meanings for sound symbolic and non-sound symbolic obsolete words. These words were presented in varying types of contextual surroundings: no context, varied context, unhelpful context, and helpful context. In each study, participants were able to generate more correct definitions for sound symbolic words compared to non-sound symbolic words. It is concluded that sound symbolism is a word property which influences the learning of unknown words.     

Verbalization and children's self-regulated learning

This article discusses the idea that overt verbalization helps to develop children's self-regulated learning of cognitive skills. Verbalization can enhance children's attention to task-relevant features. As a type of rehearsal, verbalization may improve coding, storage, and retention of material, and thereby facilitate subsequent retrieval and use. Verbalization can help children maintain a positive task outlook and cope with difficulties. Because verbalization makes salient a systematic approach for improving learning and children's ability to apply it, verbalization also can raise self-efficacy (perceived capabilities). Research is summarized that assesses the effects on children's learning due to verbalizing information to be remembered, modeled actions, and strategies. Future research needs to explore maintenance and generalization of systematic approaches to learning, verbalization of task-specific and general statements, and uses of verbalization in classrooms.     

The effect of instruction on children's solutions of addition and subtraction word problems

This study investigated the effect of initial instruction on the processes children use to solve addition and subtraction word problems. Prior to instruction and following a two-month introductory unit on addition and subtraction, 43 first-grade children were individually tested on verbal problems representing different addition and subtraction situations. Prior to instruction, the children's solution processes directly modeled the action or relationships described in the problem. Following instruction, they generally used a separating strategy for all subtraction problems. Although they could solve the problems, few children could coordinate their solutions with the arithmetic sentence they wrote to represent the problem.     

The role of group work using computational exploratory learning environments within children's learning in science

Specializations: science education, educational computing, science teacher education.     

Overconfidence in children's multi-trial judgments of learning

The underconfidence with practice effect (UWP) refers to the finding that people's judgments of learning shift from overconfidence to underconfidence on and after a first study-test trial (Koriat, Ma'ayan, & Sheffer, 2002). Finn and Metcalfe (2007, 2008) proposed that people show UWP because they use their memory of prior test performance as a cue to make subsequent judgments of learning and inadequately account for new learning (i.e. the Memory for Past Test (MPT) heuristic). In contrast to adults, 3rd and 5th graders' judgments showed persistent overconfidence on and after a first study-test trial. A second experiment tested children's ability to remember their prior test performance. Children's prior performance discriminations were accurate for items that they answered correctly on the prior trial, but were overconfident for items they had answered incorrectly indicating that their continued overconfidence was a result of faulty memory, rather than a failure to use the MPT heuristic.     

Hierarchies in children's learning: A symposium

There has been a continuing increase in the application of hierarchy theory to the problems of instruction and evaluation, since Gagné first used the term hierarchy in his theory of how human beings acquire complex skills and knowledge. This article, based on a 1970 symposium of the American Educational Research Association, presents an overview and analysis of the use of learning hierarchies in instruction and research, examines some current research on learning hierarchies, and considers the implications of this research for instructional psychology and for theories of cognitive development.Lauren B. Resnick is with the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania     

Sound symbolic word learning in the middle grades

Sound symbolism is the notion that there is a subset of words in the world’s languages for which sounds and their symbols have some degree of correspondence. Two studies assessed 5th and 6th graders’ knowledge of word meanings for English sound symbolic and non-sound symbolic words. Both studies found that the meanings of sound symbolic words were guessed more often than those for non-sound symbolic words. Study 1 found this for words presented in isolation and for both native speakers of English and those learning English as a second language. Study 1 also found that there was no difference in the ability to use sound symbolic word information between these two participant groups. Study 2 found superior performance on sound symbolic words presented both in isolation and in context and found that the combination these two types of information yielded greater word learning than either alone. We conclude that sound symbolism is a word property which influences the learning of unknown words.