A long tradition of studies in psycholinguistics has examined the formation and generalization of ad hoc conventions in reference games, showing how newly acquired conventions for a given target transfer to new referential contexts. However, another axis of generalization remains understudied: how do conventions formed for one target transfer to completely distinct targets, when specific lexical choices are unlikely to repeat? This paper presents two dyadic studies (N = 240) that address this axis of generalization, focusing on the role of nameability -- the a priori likelihood that two individuals will share the same label. We leverage the recently-released KiloGram dataset, a collection of abstract tangram images that is orders of magnitude larger than previously available, exhibiting high diversity of properties like nameability. Our first study asks how nameability shapes convention formation, while the second asks how new conventions generalize to entirely new targets of reference. Our results raise new questions about how ad hoc conventions extend beyond target-specific re-use of specific lexical choices.

翻译：心理语言学领域长期以来的传统研究考察了参考游戏中临时惯例的形成与泛化，揭示了针对特定目标新习得的惯例如何迁移至新的指称语境。然而，泛化的另一个维度仍鲜有研究：当特定词汇选择不太可能重复时，针对某一目标形成的惯例如何迁移至完全不同的目标？本文通过两项双人互动研究（N=240）探讨这一泛化维度，重点关注名称性（即两个个体事先共享同一标签的可能性）的作用。我们利用了近期发布的KiloGram数据集——该数据集包含大量抽象七巧板图像，其规模远超以往可用数据集，且在名称性等属性上呈现高度多样性。第一项研究考察名称性如何塑造惯例形成，第二项研究则探究新惯例如何泛化至完全陌生的指称目标。我们的研究结果对临时惯例如何超越特定词汇选择的目标特异性重复使用提出了新问题。