Prediction and Hypothesis Testing in Children's Novel Word Learning

Abstract

Children learn new words through a variety of methods, consciously and unconsciously making connections between novel words and new objects to expand their vocabulary. One such method may be making predictions about the meaning of a novel word presented to them and subsequently testing their prediction. Existing literature provides only suggestive evidence that prediction and hypothesis testing should support word learning. In this study, we investigated the importance of prediction and hypothesis testing in word learning. We did this by showing children novel and familiar objects and encouraging them to either make predictions and test hypotheses about new words or not. Results displayed no difference in word learning based on prediction and hypothesis testing.