CAREER: Infant Spatial Cognition and the Acquisition of Spatial Language

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The research supported by the CAREER award to Dr. Casasola will examine the cognitive and linguistic abilities that guide infants' and toddlers' acquisition of spatial language. Although languages differ in how they describe spatial events, young children display little difficulty acquiring the semantic categories that are specific to their language. For example, English-learning toddlers learn to map the English preposition "in" onto all types of containment events, for example, placing a peg in a block. Korean-learning toddlers correctly learn to map the Korean spatial verb, "kkita," onto tight-fit containment as well as tight-fit support events, for example, putting a peg in a block made to fit and a Lego block on another Lego block. Hence, by their second birthday, toddlers have begun to acquire language-specific semantic spatial categories, attending to those spatial relations (e.g., tight-fit) that are lexically are relevant to their language. When and how do infants and toddlers acquire the concept of containment described in the English term "in" or the concept of tight-fit described in the Korean term "kkita"? Are language-specific semantic categories drawn from infants' nonlinguistic spatial categories, for example, the result of infants' nonlinguistic processing of their spatial world? Or are the concepts expressed in semantic spatial categories instead acquired as the result of experience with a particular language? The current research project is designed to address these questions. A multifaceted, multi-methodological approach is taken to explore aspects of infants' and toddlers' perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic development. Specifically, the research program explores the role of nonlinguistic spatial cognition in the acquisition of language-specific semantic spatial categories by exploring the types of spatial categories formed by infants within different linguistic environments. The research program explores the possible role of linguistic input in the formation of language-specific semantic categories by documenting whether language can motivate infants to form nonlinguistic and semantic spatial categories. The research also examines the early acquisition of spatial language in infants and toddlers from different linguistic environments. The results are expected to advance our understanding of the processes guiding infant categorization and toddlers' early linguistic development. The results also will address how development may vary in infants and toddlers raised with languages other than English. The research program is integrated with an educational program in which students from underrepresented minorities will be recruited to help conduct the research, especially those who have first-hand experience negotiating two languages and who can provide an insider's perspective on the language-thought issues being explored. Because a number of different methodologies will be employed, students will gain expertise in the use of a diverse array of methods, such as visual habituation, preferential-looking, action-imitation tasks, and act-out comprehension, as well as an understanding of the different data yielded by each methodology. The goal of this education program is to provide the field with independent researchers from underrepresented minorities who will seek academic positions, contribute to the field as scientists and educators, and function as mentors and role models for other students from underrepresented minorities.