Cognitive Science

The latest breakthroughs, innovations, and cool happenings at the cutting edge of the world of cognitive science. Updated daily.

Discourse Coherence as a Cue to Reference in Word Learning: Evidence for Discourse Bootstrapping

Abstract Word learning depends critically on the use of linguistic context to constrain the likely meanings of words. However, the mechanisms by which children infer word meaning from linguistic context are still poorly understood. In this study, we asked whether adults (n = 58) and 2‐ to 6‐year‐old children (n = 180) use discourse coherence relations (i.e., the meaningful […]

Published on January 9, 2019

The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America

Abstract Previous research suggests that how people conceive of minds depends on the culture in which they live, both in determining how they interact with other human minds and how they infer the unseen minds of gods. We use exploratory factor analysis to compare how people from different societies with distinct models of human minds […]

Published on January 9, 2019

Learning Words Via Reading: Contextual Diversity, Spacing, and Retrieval Effects in Adults

Abstract We examined whether variations in contextual diversity, spacing, and retrieval practice influenced how well adults learned new words from reading experience. Eye movements were recorded as adults read novel words embedded in sentences. In the learning phase, unfamiliar words were presented either in the same sentence repeated four times (same context) or in four […]

Published on January 9, 2019