Verifying One's Knowledge of a Name Without Retrieving It: A U-Shaped Relation to Vocabulary Size in Early Childhood

• Published in: Language learning and development 2010-01, Vol.7 (1), p.40-54
• Main Authors: Marazita, John M., Merriman, William E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1547-5441; 1547-3341
• DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2010.496099

An explicit awareness of gaps in one's vocabulary plays an important role in older children's word learning and reading comprehension and may influence language processing in younger children. The current investigation addressed how preschool-age children identify gaps in their knowledge of object labels. In two studies, preschoolers answered general questions about various depicted objects, then later judged whether they knew names for these and other objects. In each study, participants were more likely to mistakenly report knowing a name for an unnameable object if they had been asked questions about it, or similar objects, earlier in the session. This pre-exposure effect is evidence that cues other than name retrieval itself can influence children's name knowledge judgments. In 4½ year olds (Study 1), the pre-exposure effect was found only among those with smaller vocabularies, whereas in 3½ year olds (Study 2), it was found only among those with larger vocabularies. The reasons why the pre-exposure effect shows a U-shaped relation to vocabulary size are discussed.