William E Merriman
Biographic Data
| ID | 5758591 |
|---|---|
| NAME | William E Merriman |
| GIVEN NAMES | William E |
| FAMILY NAME | Merriman |
| SIGNATURE | MERRIMAN W E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Kent State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4019-5722 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The pragmatics of discovery constrains children’s tendency to map novel labels onto novel objects
When taught a label for an object, and later asked whether that object or a novel object is the referent of a novel label, preschoolers favor the novel object. This article examines whether this so-called disambiguation effect may be undermined by an expectation to communicate about a discovery. This expectation may explain why 4-year-olds do not show the disambiguation effect if a sense modality shift occurs between training and test. In Study 1…
Grouping affects children’s interpretation of a label for an animal, but not for an artifact
The authors conducted three experiments examining the effect of grouping on children’s generalization of animal labels. In Experiment 1 ( N = 96), first graders ( M age = 6 years, 10 months) who had seen a novel animal grouped with similar animals generalized its trained label more broadly than those who had seen it by itself or grouped with dissimilar animals. Generalization of artifact labels was unaffected by condition. In Experiment 2, 4-year…
Children’s interpretation of a label for an individuated object
Three experiments examined whether the experience of individuating an object would affect the way that children of different ages would interpret its label. Participants were asked to remember a novel object and pick it out from sets containing either two similar objects (similar condition) or no similar objects (dissimilar condition). They were then taught a label for the object and tested for how broadly they generalized it. Because children in…
Children can accurately monitor and control their number-line estimation performance
Accurate monitoring and control are essential for effective self-regulated learning. These metacognitive abilities may be particularly important for developing math skills, such as when children are deciding whether a math task is difficult or whether they made a mistake on a particular item. The present experiments investigate children's ability to monitor and control their math performance. Experiment 1 assessed task- and item-level monitoring …
Preschoolers can make highly accurate judgments of learning
Preschoolers' ability to make judgments of learning (JOLs) was examined in 3 experiments in which they were taught proper names for animals. In Experiment 1, when judgments were made immediately after studying, nearly every child predicted subsequent recall of every name. When judgments were made after a delay, fewer showed this response tendency. The delayed JOLs of those who predicted at least 1 recall failure were still overconfident, however,…
Two-year-olds' expectation that lexical gaps will be filled
Children tend to select unfamiliar rather than familiar kinds as the referents of novel names. This tendency has been hypothesized by some to derive from an expectation that unfamiliar kinds will be labelled. In Study 1, two-year-olds (N = 16) showed little evidence of such an expectation when they had to decide whether a visible picture of an unfamiliar object or a depicted object concealed in a box was the referent of a novel name. They tended …
The prevalence and the weakness of an early name mapping preference
An empirical puzzle regarding toddlers' fast mapping motivated the current investigation. Whereas children between 1;10 and 2;1 have shown only a modest rate of mapping novel nouns onto unfamiliar rather than familiar objects, a very high rate has been observed in those between 1;4 and 1;8 (Mervis & Bertrand, 1994). Study 1 examined whether young two-year-olds ( N =40, mean age=2;1) might map at a higher rate when tested with procedures unique to…
Beyond Names for Things
How shall a deceptive thing be called
Thirty-six three-, four- and five-year-olds were asked to select labels for deceptive stimuli (e.g. for an eraser that looked like a pencil). Three types of labelling were investigated –simple (e.g. ‘is an eraser’); appearance-predicated (e.g. ‘looks like an eraser’); and reality-predicated (e.g. ‘is really and truly an eraser’). An age-related appearance-reality shift was observed in simple labelling (e.g. older children were more likely than yo…
The effect of hearing similar-sounding words on young 2-year-olds' disambiguation of novel reference
Young 2-year-olds' interpretation of a novel noun was influenced by preexposure to similar-sounding words. In Experiment 1, 16 children selected an unfamiliar rather than a familiar object as the noun's referent more often when they had just heard many words that sounded like it than when they had just heard many that did not. Exposure to repeated sounds was hypothesized to reduce the attentional resources needed to process a word made up ofthe s…
An appearance-function shift in children's object naming
The relative importance of appearance and potential function in children's object naming was examined. Potential function is an object capability that may not be currently realized (e.g. an empty mug has the potential to hold coffee). In Study 1, sixteen children from each of three age groups (3;8, 4;8, and 6;1) were taught novel names for unfamiliar objects; they then had to decide whether these applied to items that resembled the training objec…
The mutual exclusivity bias in children's word learning
The Mutual Exclusivity Bias in Children's Word Learning
Nearly every recent account of children's word learning has addressed the claim that children are biased to construct mutually exclusive extensions, that is, that they are disposed to keep the set of referents of one word from overlapping with those of others. Three basic positions have been taken--that children have the bias when they first start to learn words, that they never have it, and that they acquire it during early childhood. A review o…
Mental rotation of facial profiles
Preschoolers can make highly accurate judgments of learning
Preschoolers' ability to make judgments of learning (JOLs) was examined in 3 experiments in which they were taught proper names for animals. In Experiment 1, when judgments were made immediately after studying, nearly every child predicted subsequent recall of every name. When judgments were made after a delay, fewer showed this response tendency. The delayed JOLs of those who predicted at least 1 recall failure were still overconfident, however,…
Children can accurately monitor and control their number-line estimation performance
Accurate monitoring and control are essential for effective self-regulated learning. These metacognitive abilities may be particularly important for developing math skills, such as when children are deciding whether a math task is difficult or whether they made a mistake on a particular item. The present experiments investigate children's ability to monitor and control their math performance. Experiment 1 assessed task- and item-level monitoring …
The effect of hearing similar-sounding words on young 2-year-olds' disambiguation of novel reference
Young 2-year-olds' interpretation of a novel noun was influenced by preexposure to similar-sounding words. In Experiment 1, 16 children selected an unfamiliar rather than a familiar object as the noun's referent more often when they had just heard many words that sounded like it than when they had just heard many that did not. Exposure to repeated sounds was hypothesized to reduce the attentional resources needed to process a word made up ofthe s…
Mental rotation of facial profiles
The Mutual Exclusivity Bias in Children's Word Learning
Nearly every recent account of children's word learning has addressed the claim that children are biased to construct mutually exclusive extensions, that is, that they are disposed to keep the set of referents of one word from overlapping with those of others. Three basic positions have been taken--that children have the bias when they first start to learn words, that they never have it, and that they acquire it during early childhood. A review o…
The mutual exclusivity bias in children's word learning
An appearance-function shift in children's object naming
The relative importance of appearance and potential function in children's object naming was examined. Potential function is an object capability that may not be currently realized (e.g. an empty mug has the potential to hold coffee). In Study 1, sixteen children from each of three age groups (3;8, 4;8, and 6;1) were taught novel names for unfamiliar objects; they then had to decide whether these applied to items that resembled the training objec…
How shall a deceptive thing be called
Thirty-six three-, four- and five-year-olds were asked to select labels for deceptive stimuli (e.g. for an eraser that looked like a pencil). Three types of labelling were investigated –simple (e.g. ‘is an eraser’); appearance-predicated (e.g. ‘looks like an eraser’); and reality-predicated (e.g. ‘is really and truly an eraser’). An age-related appearance-reality shift was observed in simple labelling (e.g. older children were more likely than yo…
The effect of hearing similar-sounding words on young 2-year-olds' disambiguation of novel reference
Young 2-year-olds' interpretation of a novel noun was influenced by preexposure to similar-sounding words. In Experiment 1, 16 children selected an unfamiliar rather than a familiar object as the noun's referent more often when they had just heard many words that sounded like it than when they had just heard many that did not. Exposure to repeated sounds was hypothesized to reduce the attentional resources needed to process a word made up ofthe s…
Beyond Names for Things
The prevalence and the weakness of an early name mapping preference
An empirical puzzle regarding toddlers' fast mapping motivated the current investigation. Whereas children between 1;10 and 2;1 have shown only a modest rate of mapping novel nouns onto unfamiliar rather than familiar objects, a very high rate has been observed in those between 1;4 and 1;8 (Mervis & Bertrand, 1994). Study 1 examined whether young two-year-olds ( N =40, mean age=2;1) might map at a higher rate when tested with procedures unique to…
Two-year-olds' expectation that lexical gaps will be filled
Children tend to select unfamiliar rather than familiar kinds as the referents of novel names. This tendency has been hypothesized by some to derive from an expectation that unfamiliar kinds will be labelled. In Study 1, two-year-olds (N = 16) showed little evidence of such an expectation when they had to decide whether a visible picture of an unfamiliar object or a depicted object concealed in a box was the referent of a novel name. They tended …
Preschoolers can make highly accurate judgments of learning
Preschoolers' ability to make judgments of learning (JOLs) was examined in 3 experiments in which they were taught proper names for animals. In Experiment 1, when judgments were made immediately after studying, nearly every child predicted subsequent recall of every name. When judgments were made after a delay, fewer showed this response tendency. The delayed JOLs of those who predicted at least 1 recall failure were still overconfident, however,…
Children’s interpretation of a label for an individuated object
Three experiments examined whether the experience of individuating an object would affect the way that children of different ages would interpret its label. Participants were asked to remember a novel object and pick it out from sets containing either two similar objects (similar condition) or no similar objects (dissimilar condition). They were then taught a label for the object and tested for how broadly they generalized it. Because children in…
Children can accurately monitor and control their number-line estimation performance
Accurate monitoring and control are essential for effective self-regulated learning. These metacognitive abilities may be particularly important for developing math skills, such as when children are deciding whether a math task is difficult or whether they made a mistake on a particular item. The present experiments investigate children's ability to monitor and control their math performance. Experiment 1 assessed task- and item-level monitoring …
Grouping affects children’s interpretation of a label for an animal, but not for an artifact
The authors conducted three experiments examining the effect of grouping on children’s generalization of animal labels. In Experiment 1 ( N = 96), first graders ( M age = 6 years, 10 months) who had seen a novel animal grouped with similar animals generalized its trained label more broadly than those who had seen it by itself or grouped with dissimilar animals. Generalization of artifact labels was unaffected by condition. In Experiment 2, 4-year…
The pragmatics of discovery constrains children’s tendency to map novel labels onto novel objects
When taught a label for an object, and later asked whether that object or a novel object is the referent of a novel label, preschoolers favor the novel object. This article examines whether this so-called disambiguation effect may be undermined by an expectation to communicate about a discovery. This expectation may explain why 4-year-olds do not show the disambiguation effect if a sense modality shift occurs between training and test. In Study 1…
Psychology (14 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (10 works) · Cognitive psychology (9 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Cognition (4 works) · Communication (4 works)