The effects of joint reference and mutual exclusivity on the application of whole-object assumption in 3-year old Filipino preschoolers

This study investigated the constraints 3-year old preschoolers resort to in learning a new word or label. Considering that the vocabulary spurt is well underway at this age, it is an interesting study to find out how these young children can learn words at a fast pace. The researcher tested three possible constraints specifically, the Whole Object Assumption to determine if it has an effect on the learning of a new word/label in young children, the Mutual Exclusivity Principle and the Joint Reference Principle to determine if these override the Whole Object Assumption in word learning. Each constraint was tested through audiovisual PowerPoint slides and these were the sources of the data for this study. Through these tests the researcher was able to find out that, apparently, the three-year olds learn new words through their reference of the new word or label to the whole object and not to any of its parts. This whole object bias seems to have an effect on word learning in the three-year old respondents. The preschoolers in this study seem to go by the assumption that objects can have only one name or label by which it can be called thus, when a familiar object is assigned a new word or label, the referent of the new word or label is a part of the familiar object. This ability to assign a new word or label to an object part indicate that the Mutual Exclusivity Principle overrides the Whole Object Assumption. On the other hand, the tests show that social cues like looking or gazing are apparently not influential factors in the three-year olds learning of new words. This may be due to the 3-year olds development of the ability to learn more independently as well as having a schema of things in their environment. Thus, the Joint Reference Principle does not override the Whole Object Assumption