We used a preferential pointing task to investigate 2-year old children’s ability to infer the
referent of a novel noun from a single ambiguous exposure, and their ability to retain this mapping.
On critical trials, images of a known and a novel object (e.g. a ball and a nameless artifact constructed
in the lab) appeared on two computer screens and a voice asked the child to “point at the [e.g. spoov].”
Children saw 6 novel label trials (e.g. “spoov”) and 20 known label trials (e.g. “ball”). Following label
onset, children had only 3 seconds in which to infer the correct referent. Each novel object appeared
only once during the study and no feedback was given. Children successfully pointed to novel objects
on novel label trials and to known objects on known label trials. In a final post-test trial, two
previously labeled novel objects appeared and children were asked to point to one of them (e.g.
“spoov” versus “pizer”). In order to succeed on this trial, children had to have initially mapped the
novel labels correctly and retained these mappings over the course of the study. Children succeeded
on this post-test trial. We conclude that 2-year-olds are able to fast-map novel nouns from a single, 3-
second ambiguous exposure.