How do sleep and meaning richness influence word learning?

Learning a new word with meaning (as opposed to learning only its form) may contribute to the process of consolidation or lexicalization of the new word, making it part of a more permanent semantic memory rather than episodic memory. Previous research established a role for sleep in this process. I present an on-going project examining the influences of both sleep and meaning on behavioral and EEG indicators of the lexicalization process, which both affects the processing of existing words and makes the reading of novel words more like that of real words. One part of the experiment examined the impact of sleep and meaning on the processing of existing words (e.g., banana) that were visually similar to the learned novel words (e.g., banara). The other part examined the influences of sleep and meaning on the reading of the newly learned words by comparing brain oscillations to novel words (e.g., banara) with those to existing words (e.g., autumn). Interesting preliminary results from seven participants were obtained prior to the shutdown of our lab by the pandemic.