{"pk":50200,"title":"Estimating Lexical-Semantic Networks from Verbal Fluency Data in 5-8 Year Olds","subtitle":null,"abstract":"As children learn language, they organize their knowledge in lexical-semantic networks. Comparing pre-existing methods of accessing underlying networks, we examine developmental verbal fluency in 5-8-year-olds (N=37, mean age=80.27 mos) across two different prompt types — taxonomic (animals and foods) vs. (location-based) thematic prompts (zoo and grocery store) — using two different graph-theoretic estimation strategies: random-walk modeling (e.g., U-INVITE) and GloVe word embeddings. We observed several consistencies: taxonomic prompts elicited more words than thematic prompts (linear mixed-effects model: t(35) = 3.16, p<0.05); networks expanded with age (U-INVITE, t(35) = 4.26, p<0.05; ESN, t(35) = 4.53, p<0.05); and structures spread out (versus clustering densely). However, key differences emerged. Random-walk networks uncovered different highest-degree (most densely clustered) words depending on the prompt type (e.g., \"dog\" for animals, \"monkey\" for zoo). By contrast, networks based on word embeddings identified networks with very similar highest-degree words for animals and zoo. Hence, alternative assumptions informing method choices may result in distinct network estimates, with consequences for how we map the growth of lexical knowledge.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Psychology; Behavioral Science; Development; Language acquisition; Computational Modeling"}],"section":"Member Abstracts with Poster Presentation","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4sv3s88z","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"AJ","middle_name":"","last_name":"Jain","name_suffix":"","institution":"UT Southwestern Medical Center","department":""},{"first_name":"Martin","middle_name":"","last_name":"Zettersten","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California San Diego","department":""},{"first_name":"Casey","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lew-Williams","name_suffix":"","institution":"Princeton University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2025-01-01T10:00:00-08:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/50200/galley/38162/download/"}]}