Research

My research investigates how people learn words in ambiguous environments and how language experience—particularly bilingualism—shapes these learning processes. I study these questions primarily using the cross‑situational word learning paradigm, which examines how learners track statistical regularities between words and objects across multiple situations.

Research themes

📊 Cross‑situational word learning

Many real-world learning situations are ambiguous: when hearing a new word, several possible referents may be present. Cross‑situational word learning studies how learners resolve this ambiguity by tracking co‑occurrence statistics across learning events.

My work investigates how learners form and update word–object mappings over time and how factors such as overlapping meanings influence learning and retrieval.

🌍 Bilingualism and language experience

Bilingual speakers experience different language environments than monolingual speakers. One long‑standing question is whether bilingual experience influences the ability to learn new words.

I investigate whether bilingualism affects statistical word learning and how characteristics of bilingual experience (e.g., language balance or language switching) shape learning behaviour.

👁️ Online learning processes

Learning unfolds dynamically over time. Using eye‑tracking, I examine how learners allocate visual attention to potential word meanings during learning and retrieval.

These methods allow us to observe competition between candidate word–object mappings and reveal learning processes that are not visible in accuracy measures alone.

Methods

Eye‑tracking Behavioural experiments Reaction‑time paradigms Trial‑by‑trial analyses Meta‑analysis

Selected publications

Simonetti, M.E., Lorenz, M.G., Koch, I., & Roembke, T.C. (2025). The influence of bilingualism on statistical word learning: A registered report. Royal Society Open Science.

Simonetti, M.E., Koch, I., & Roembke, T.C. (2025). How do multiple meanings affect word learning and remapping? Memory & Cognition.

Simonetti, M.E., & Roembke, T.C. (2026). Cross‑situational word learning. International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.

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