Bilingualism & Children’s Cross-Situational Word Learning Under Different Variability Conditions

In the present study, we examined the separate and combined effects of exemplar and speaker variability in monolingual and bilingual children’s cross-situational word learning (XSWL) performance. Results revealed that children learned word-referent associations equally well when the input varied in a single dimension (i.e., exemplars or speakers) compared to a condition with no variability, independent of their linguistic background. However, when performance in conditions that varied in a single dimension (i.e., exemplars or speakers) was compared to a condition that varied in multiple dimensions (i.e., exemplars and speakers), bilingual word-learning advantages were observed, such that bilinguals were more likely to learn word-referent associations than monolinguals. Together, results suggest that children can learn and generalize word-referent associations from input that varies in exemplars and speakers, and that bilingualism may bolster learning under conditions of increased input variability.