Effects of semantic clustering and repetition on incidental vocabulary learning

Abstract

The present study intended to investigate, first, the impact of semantic clustering on the recall and recognition of incidentally learned words in a new language, and second, how the interaction between semantic clustering and frequency of occurrence may modulate learning. To that end, Spanish university students watched an intentionally created video which contained Spanish target words that were either semantically related to others of the set, or not semantically linked at all. Furthermore, frequency of appearance changed among target words (1|4|8). All these words were paired with pseudowords that appeared as on-screen text during the videos. Participants were completely naive to the phases and the procedure of the experiment. After viewing the video, participants completed a recall test and a recognition test. Results showed that words presented in semantically unrelated categories were better recalled and better recognized than those presented in semantic clusters, especially when the words were presented more often.

Keywords: foreign language; frequency of occurrence; incidental learning; semantic clustering; vocabulary learning.

Figure 1

Marginal means plots of the recall accuracy (left), similarity of the recalled strings with the target items (middle) and recognition accuracy (right) split by condition. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.