Perry, L. & Saffran, J.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
When a toddler knows a word, what does she actually know? Many categories have multiple relevant properties: e.g., shape and color are relevant to membership in the category BANANA. How do toddlers prioritize properties when recognizing familiar objects? Are there meaningful differences amongst children and how do the statistical regularities of children's vocabulary knowledge influence recognition? 21-month-old toddlers viewed pairs of objects associated with prototypical colors. On some trials, objects were typically-colored (e.g., Holstein cow and pink pig); on other trials, objects' colors were switched (e.g., pink cow and Holstein-patterned pig). On each trial, toddlers were directed to find a target object. Overall, word recognition was disrupted when colors were switched, as measured by eye movements. Moreover, differences in the statistics of children's vocabularies predicted recognition differences: toddlers who say fewer shape-based words (e.g., cup, ball), regardless of overall vocabulary size, were more disrupted by color switches. "Knowing" a word may not mean the same thing for all toddlers; different toddlers prioritize different facets of highly familiar objects in their lexical representations. The individual statistics of a toddler's vocabulary guide her to prioritize different properties when recognizing familiar objects. We discuss how statistical learning over developmental time influences in-the-moment processing.