AUTHOR=Vlach Haley , Sandhofer Catherine M.

TITLE=Fast Mapping Across Time: Memory Processes Support Children’s Retention of Learned Words

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2012

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00046

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00046

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Children’s remarkable ability to map linguistic labels to referents in the world is commonly called <italic>fast mapping</italic>. The current study examined children’s (<italic>N</italic> = 216) and adults’ (<italic>N</italic> = 54) retention of fast-mapped words over time (immediately, after a 1-week delay, and after a 1-month delay). The fast mapping literature often characterizes children’s retention of words as consistently high across timescales. However, the current study demonstrates that learners forget word mappings at a rapid rate. Moreover, these patterns of forgetting parallel forgetting functions of domain-general memory processes. Memory processes are critical to children’s word learning and the role of one such process, forgetting, is discussed in detail – forgetting supports extended mapping by promoting the memory and generalization of words and categories.</p>