Rapid Consolidation Of Novel Words Under Fast Mapping Paradigm:Evidence From Behavioral And ERP Studies

The classical complementary learning systems(CLS)framework believes that the consolidation of new information is a slow process.However,recent researches have discovered the rapid consolidation of novel words.For example,some researchers have found that novel words learned under fast mapping(FM)learning paradigm can be rapidly integrated into the mental lexicon relative to explicit encoding(EE).In a typical fast mapping paradigm,a picture of a novel object and a picture of a known object present simultaneously,under which a question containing a new name(e.g.,“Are the torato's antennae pointing up?” with images of an unknown insect and a cricket)is to be answered by pressing a button.Retrieving and ruling out the cricket allows the learner to infer that the novel word refers to the novel item.However,the mechanism for the rapid consolidation of novel words remains unclear.In the fast mapping paradigm,learners acquire the meaning of novel words by inference.Some researchers believe that when inferring the meaning of novel words,processing the semantic features of unfamiliar objects is an important feature of this paradigm.However,in previous studies,the questions in the fast mapping paradigm varied,which led to different involvement of semantic features in the learning process.Therefore,this study will examine whether the process of the semantic features of the objects in the learning process will affect the rapid consolidation of novel words.In addition,previous researches suggest that in the fast mapping paradigm,the familiar objects,presented with unfamiliar objects and novel words,may play an important role on the rapid consolidation of novel words.Previous studies all used familiar objects that belong to the same categoryas unfamiliar objects in fast mapping paradigm.Therefore,the second question examined in this study is whether the category relationship of familiar objects and unfamiliar objects will affect the rapid consolidation of novel words.An important indicator for the consolidation of novel words is that they are associated with other known words in the mental lexicon or with other concepts in the semantic network,resulting in facilitation or interference of the processing of the known words.Therefore,we applied the semantic priming paradigm to examine the consolidation of novel words.The present study explored the mechanisms that influence the rapid consolidation of novel words in FM paradigm through two experiments.In the first experiment,two learning conditions are designed,by manipulating the question.In one condition,the questions would induce the learner to process the semantic features of the object,which is defined as the deep processing condition.In the other condition,the questions guided the subject to process only the position where the new object appears,defined as shallow processing condition.By comparing the semantic priming effects of novel words under the two learning conditions,we examined whether the processing of semantic features of the objects is necessary for rapid consolidation of novel words.In addition,Experiment 2added category relationship between familiar object and unfamiliar object as another independent variable,including the same category and different categories,to see the role of category relationship on the rapid consolidation of novel words.The research results are as follows:(1)As indicated by the response time,the participants judged the semantically related words faster than the unrelated words,and the two variables of processing depth and category relationship did not affect the semantic priming effect of the novel words.(2)Only in the learning condition,in which the question induced learners to process the semantic features of the object,and the familiar object was in the same category with the unfamiliar object,the N400 amplitude evoked by the semantic related words is smaller than that of the unrelated words.Under the other three conditions,this effect was not found.These results showed that the novel words learned under fast mapping could facilitate thelexical judgment of semantic related words.However,only under the learning condition of deep processing and the same category,the newly learned words could activate the known related words in the semantic network.(3)Only in the learning condition,in which the question induced learners to process the semantic features of the object,and the familiar object was in the same category with the unfamiliar object,the LPC amplitude evoked by the semantic related word was larger than that of the unrelated words.Under the other three conditions,this effect was not found.This result indicated that,under the learning condition of deep processing and the same category,learners made efforts to extract information from long-term memory and to establish connections between novel words and related words.Although the newly learned words have been integrated into the existing semantic network,the participants still continue to consolidate the connection between novel words and other words afterwards.(4)In the explicit semantic recognition task,the learning condition did not affect the performance of recognition.In summary,this study found that novel words learned in fast mapping paradigm can be rapidly consolidated into the semantic network.However,the rapid consolidation is constrained by the specific learning conditions.Only when the question induced learners to process the semantic features of the object,and the familiar object was in the same category with the unfamiliar object,the newly learned words could be rapidly consolidated into semantic networks.