Speaker Variability, But Not Bilingualism, Influences Cross-Situational Word Learning in Adults

When learning new words, listeners must contend with multiple sources of ambiguity and variability. Research has revealed that learners can resolve referential ambiguity by tracking co-occurrence statistics between words and their referents across multiple exposures over time – a process termed cross-situational word learning (XSWL). However, the degree to which variability in the input, such as input from multiple speakers, and variability in learner experience, such as bilingual language experience, modulate XSWL remain unclear. In the present study, we examined the effects of speaker variability in cross-situational word learning performance in monolingual adults and bilingual adults with a range of second language backgrounds and language acquisition histories. Results suggest that XSWL can scale to accommodate speaker variability, and that adults can generalize word-object associations to productions by novel speakers. However, accommodating fluctuations in the input may interfere with word learning, independent of bilingual language experience. This research adds to the limited body of work dedicated to extending theories of statistical learning to account for variations in both input and learner characteristics as well as their interactions.