Becoming Organized: How Simple Learning Mechanisms may Shape theDevelopment of Rich Semantic Knowledge
Abstract
With development, we acquire rich body of knowledge aboutthe world in which concepts denoted by words (e.g., juicy,apple, and pear) are connected by meaningful, semantic links(e.g., apples and pears are similar, and can both be juicy). Onepotentially powerful driver of this development is sensitivity toregularities with which words co-occur in language.Specifically, language is rich regularities that can support: (1)Associative semantic links between words that directly co-occur together (e.g., juicy-apple), and (2) Taxonomic semanticlinks between words similar in meaning that share patterns ofdirect co-occurrence (e.g., apple and pear both co-occur withjuicy). Here, we investigated the development of abilities toform semantic links from these regularities. Results revealedthat both children and adults formed direct co-occurrence-based links, whereas only adults formed shared co-occurrencebased links. We discuss how these results may provide keyinsight into how semantic organization develops.