Meta-analytic evidence for fast mapping in healthy adults
Abstract
Fast mapping is an incidental learning paradigm that presents a novel word and new item alongside a familiar “supporting foil,” allowing the learner to infer (and possibly learn) the meaning of the new word. While fast mapping is well studied in children, its role in adult learning remains debated, with studies reporting robust effects and null results. This paper reports a meta-analysis of behavioral fast mapping studies in healthy adults. Across 28 experiments, fast mapping produced a significant overall medium effect (Hedges’ g = 0.39) on memory outcomes. This was observed to a similar extent across three theoretically motivated categories: (1) interaction with existing memory traces, (2) stability over time, and (3) moderation by semantic features. The meta-analytic findings converge on the conclusion that fast mapping can facilitate integration into memory, likely through schema-based mechanisms, with a need to clarify boundary conditions through further experimentation.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Memory Processes and Influences
Cognitive Functions and Memory
Reading and Literacy Development
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Learning & Memory
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 2-3
- Pages
- a054168–a054168
- Publication date
- 1 February 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Preprint