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How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words

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Listed:
  • Manuel Bohn

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
    Stanford University)

  • Michael Henry Tessler

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Megan Merrick

    (Stanford University)

  • Michael C. Frank

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

Before formal education begins, children typically acquire a vocabulary of thousands of words. This learning process requires the use of many different information sources in their social environment, including their current state of knowledge and the context in which they hear words used. How is this information integrated? We specify a developmental model according to which children consider information sources in an age-specific way and integrate them via Bayesian inference. This model accurately predicted 2–5-year-old children’s word learning across a range of experimental conditions in which they had to integrate three information sources. Model comparison suggests that the central locus of development is an increased sensitivity to individual information sources, rather than changes in integration ability. This work presents a developmental theory of information integration during language learning and illustrates how formal models can be used to make a quantitative test of the predictive and explanatory power of competing theories.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuel Bohn & Michael Henry Tessler & Megan Merrick & Michael C. Frank, 2021. "How young children integrate information sources to infer the meaning of words," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(8), pages 1046-1054, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:5:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1038_s41562-021-01145-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01145-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sophie Bridgers & Julian Jara-Ettinger & Hyowon Gweon, 2020. "Young children consider the expected utility of others’ learning to decide what to teach," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(2), pages 144-152, February.
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