Abstract
This paper is going to focus on the relationship between word learning in 6 months old. It will also look at the level of encoding of that words and retention. It was based on the hypothesis that young children relate words with objects. The experiment was conducted on a number of infants that were given different categories of analysis. The analysis included memory test and training. The results showed that the infants were able to relate words and objects after a repetition of the same for several occasions.
Introduction
Word learning is a process that requires the establishment of memory structures for children to get a connection for both word formation and the meaning of these words. This will help the children establish newly acquired memory for reference. It has been established that a 6 months old infant can establish a relationship between mama and papa by looking at the faces of the father and mother. It has been established many researchers that it is very interesting how they start to form words (Rugg, 2007). When the word formation starts, the child starts associating things with what it sees. This paper is going to present the relationship between word learning in 6 months old. It will also look at the level of encoding of this words and retention. It will base on the hypothesis that young children relate words with objects.
The study was done through the use observation design. In this category, the methodology used involved two sets of studies, one based on training and the other on the memory test. There were a total of 44 infants who participated in training, who comprised of both boys and girls; the girls were 19 and the boys were 25. On the memory test category there were 39 infants of whom 17 were girls and 22 were boys. These infants were used to prove the validity of the hypothesis of the study.
In the experiment that was conducted there were two different sessions as mention before, the testing session and the training session. The one day training was conducted and in the training the infants were given 16 picture-word match pairs of different objects and 16 unknown pseudo words. Another set of eight objects and eight words. During this training the objects were paired more than seven times with the matching words so that eight word mapping could be imparted in the brains of the infants and they could learn. This was done to ensure that the infants get to relate the objects and words (Reznick, 2010).
In the study, the objects were given bright colours of the pseudo objects to make the un-identical and have unique features from others. The words were also printed in bold that could be visible too for the infants. The German rule was considered when conducting the study, whereby all the pseudo words were phonetically and phonologically, had consonants followed by a vowel onset and the first syllable was stressed to make the infants have an easy time in relating the words with the objects. The words were then read out slowly to the infants by a woman through a speaker for the little children to hear them perfectly well (Janowsky, 2012).
The combination of memory test and the training in the study was used to find out whether the infants could store the information or try and fast encode the words and relate them to images. It helped them in the lexical mapping of what was taking place in their environment. It was expected that if the infants were able to relate between words and object then in the first half of the training the infants were expected to have related the words with their corresponding objects. The process was repeated more than once and after 1 day it was concluded that the training was successful.
Results
On the first day of training, it was noted that 23 boys were observed to be very active and could associate the object and the words if the matching was done several times, the girls 14 were could match the object rightly without mistaking them after it was matched and read to them more than 5 times. On the memory test, the infants were very active, and it was revealed that 17 girls were able to relate the objects and words after they had seen the objects earlier. This was also replicated by the boys as 20 of them were able to match the objects and the words after some time. This showed that the babies could interpret and internalize the object then relate them to words. There were some factors that contributed to the infant understanding and association of the objects and words (Reznick, 2010). The familiarity effect helped the infants retain the image in the brains and develop the association of words.
Discussion
The experiment was successful because the way the memory test and the training were done on the infants. The repetition of the objects and words contributed greatly in making the children understand based on the familiarity that took place during the training. The effects of the repetition during the training stages were important in the processing of the objects and words to make the association between two variables. The pictures were easily linked to the words by the infants because of the repetition that took place during the training and in the memory test (Reznick, 2010). In short, verbal skills were presented in agreement to the pictures, and the circumstance in which they were developed as they would be much well known than when the same language was given in incongruous picture context.
The results showed that there was great limitation in the way mapping of the object-word was done by the infants. When the object was shown to the infants a few times they failed to map the relationship between the words and the object. This affected the mapping process of retention of the word-object relationship (Rugg, 2007).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the study was to investigate the relationship between word learning in 6 months old. An experiment was done on a number of infants who included a total of 83 infants. The number was dived into two categories, training and memory test category. The results showed that the infants retained a lot during the training when the object-word was done several times. They retained the relationship and could match given words to their responding objects (Janowsky, 2012). However, there were also some other negative effects that were noted such as the infants could note in the infants could not relate word-object when training was done in less than four times.
References
Janowsky, J. S. (2012). Early language development and its neural correlates: Handbook of neuropsychology, child neurology. New York. Prentice Hall Publishers
Reznick, J. S. (2010). Early lexical acquisition: Rate, content and vocabulary spurt. Journal of Child Language
Rugg, C. A. (2007). Accounting for change in declarative memory: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. Chicago. McGraw Hill Publishers
