Apprentissage, mémorisation, et généralisation de nouveaux noms chez l'enfant trisomique 21. Une comparaison avec l'enfant en développement normal

We compared a group of Down syndrome participants with a group of normally developing children matched on mental age in a lexical learning task. Participants had to learn the name of four unfamiliar animals or musical instruments. Training was assessed through a naming and a pointing task, immediately after the end of the training phase, two days later, or two weeks later. Results revealed that participants with Down syndrome were better than the control group in the naming (production) task. We conclude that the learning processes involved in a novel name-learning task are not impaired in the Down syndrome persons. The two groups used the contextual cues in the same way. Finally, the notion of fast mapping in lexical learning is also discussed.