Inferring Word Meaning from Cross-Situational Frequency of Features

In our experiment, we investigated what features people would rely on most to determine the meaning of a word they had never heard before. Previous work had indicated that children need several cross situational interactions in order to come to a conclusion about the definition of an object due to ambiguity in the real world. We tested adults by given them two original pictures which we referred to as "dax gren nes". We then gave then 8 more pictures and asked them to bet on how likely they thought each picture could be referred to as "dax gren nes". Our results demonstrated that adults are generally capable of discerning the general meaning of a new word.