Children's Research Initiative: Infant Perception Of Referencing Through Dynamic Gestures During Early Lexical Development

AbstractCollaborative Proposal：本研究的主要目的是检验一个基于知觉的理论，该理论被假设为早期词汇理解的基础。该理论的基础是社会化的做法所使用的照顾者在互动与婴儿在一个非常早期的阶段的文字学习。在确定婴儿最初是如何感知单词与其所指对象之间的关系时，复杂性来自于这样一个事实，即单词是感知上是连续语音流的一部分。此外，所指对象是嵌入在复杂的动态环境中的一个元素。婴儿是如何分辨出语音流中的哪一段是单词以及这个单词的意思的呢？为了寻找这个问题的答案，我们设计了四项研究。 这些研究验证了这样一个假设，即看护者在手势和言语中呈现的感知信息类型吸引了注意力，并使单词与其所指对象之间的对应关系变得可用和容易检测。 本研究将探讨一系列的语义功能，包括名词（对象），动词（对象运动），和形容词（对象属性）。样本将由来自讲英语家庭的婴儿组成，包括最高教育水平为高中文凭的母亲以及具有大学教育的母亲。这项研究将在伊萨卡学院进行，这是一所主要的本科院校;协助该项目的本科生应该对心理学的科学方法有一个了解，并对攻读研究生课程有更大的兴趣。本研究的结果不仅会引起语言发展理论家的兴趣，而且也具有很大的现实意义。了解早期单词学习的基本过程将有助于教育工作者为语言障碍学习者、发育障碍儿童和任何学习第二语言的人设计更有效的技术。

AbstractCollaborative Proposal: Infant Perception of Referencing Through Dynamic Gestures During Early Lexical DevelopmentNancy RaderThe main objective of the proposed research is to test a perceptually-based theory hypothesized to underlie early word comprehension. The theory has its basis in socialization practices used by caregivers in interacting with infants at a very early stage of word learning. In determining how infants initially come to perceive the relation between a word and its referent, complexities arise from the fact that the word is a segment of what perceptually is a continuous stream of speech sounds. Additionally, the referent is one element embedded within a complex, dynamic environment. How could an infant detect which span of the speech stream is a word and what that word means? In searching for an answer to this question, a set of four studies has been designed. These studies test the hypothesis that the types of perceptual information that caregivers present in gesture and speech attract attention and make the correspondence between a word and its referent available and easily detectable. The research will examine a range of semantic functions that includes nouns (objects), verbs (object motions), and adjectives (object attributes). The sample will be comprised of infants from English-speaking families and will include mothers whose highest education level is a high school diploma as well as those with a college education. The research will be carried out at Ithaca College, a primarily undergraduate institution; the undergraduate students assisting with the project should gain an appreciation of a scientific approach to psychology and a greater interest in pursuing graduate studies. While the results of this research will be of interest to theorists of language development, they also should have great practical significance. Understanding the processes underlying early word learning will help educators devise more effective techniques for impaired language learners, for children with developmental disabilities, and for anyone learning a second language.