Does narrator variability facilitate incidental word learning in the classroom?
Date
2022Author
Tapia, José Luis
Rocabado, Francisco
Vergara-Martínez, Marta
Perea, Manuel
Metadata
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Tapia, J.L., Rosa, E., Rocabado, F. et al. Does narrator variability facilitate incidental word learning in the classroom?. Mem Cogn 50, 278–295 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-021-01228-4
Memory & Cognition
Memory & Cognition
Abstract
Recent studies have revealed that presenting novel words across various contexts (i.e., contextual diversity) helps to
consolidate the meaning of these words both in adults and children. This effect has been typically explained in terms of
semantic distinctiveness (e.g., Semantic Distinctiveness Model, Jones et al., Canadian Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 66(2), 115, 2012). However, the relative influence of other, non-semantic, elements of the context is still
unclear. In this study, we examined whether incidental learning of new words in children was facilitated when the words
were uttered by several individuals rather than when they were uttered by the same individual. In the learning phase, the
to-be-learned words were presented through audible fables recorded either by the same voice (low diversity) or by
different voices (high diversity). Subsequently, word learning was assessed through two orthographic and semantic
integration tasks. Results showed that words uttered by different voices were learned better than those uttered by the
same voice. Thus, the benefits of contextual diversity in word learning extend beyond semantic differences among
contexts; they also benefit from perceptual differences among contexts.