The influence of clustering coefficient on word-learning: how groups of similar sounding words facilitate acquisition

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology Vol. 5; p. 1307
• Main Authors: Goldstein, Rutherford, Vitevitch, Michael S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 18.11.2014
• Subjects: clustering coefficient; neighborhood density; Network Science; psycholinguistic; Psychology; word-learning; neighborhood density; word-learning; clustering coefficient; network science
• ISSN: 1664-1078; 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01307

Clustering coefficient, C, measures the extent to which neighbors of a word are also neighbors of each other, and has been shown to influence speech production, speech perception, and several memory-related processes. In this study we examined how C influences word-learning. Participants were trained over three sessions at 1-week intervals, and tested with a picture-naming task on nonword-nonobject pairs. We found an advantage for novel words with high C (the neighbors of this novel word are likely to be neighbors with each other), but only after the 1-week retention period with no additional exposures to the stimuli. The results are consistent with the spreading-activation network-model of the lexicon proposed by Chan and Vitevitch (2009). The influence of C on various language-related processes suggests that characteristics of the individual word are not the only things that influence processing; rather, lexical processing may also be influenced by the relationships that exist among words in the lexicon.