CAREER: Infant Spatial Cognition and the Acquisition of Spatial Language

职业：婴儿空间认知和空间语言的习得

• 批准号: 0349183
• 负责人: Marianella Casasola
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: Cornell Univ - State: AWDS MADE PRIOR MAY 2010
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-08-01 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0349183&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Infant; Spatial; Cognition; Acquisition

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.

这项研究由授予卡萨索拉博士的职业生涯奖支持，将考察指导婴幼儿获得空间语言的认知和语言能力。尽管语言在描述空间事件的方式上有所不同，但幼儿在习得特定于其语言的语义范畴方面并没有什么困难。例如，学英语的幼儿学习将英语介词“in”映射到所有类型的遏制事件上，例如，在积木上放置一个钉子。学韩语的幼儿正确地学习如何将韩语空间动词“kkita”映射到紧密型安全壳和紧密型支撑活动上，例如，把一个钉子放在一个贴合的积木上，把一个乐高积木放在另一个乐高积木上。因此，到两岁时，学步儿童已经开始学习特定于语言的语义空间范畴，注意那些在词汇上与他们的语言相关的空间关系(例如，紧密匹配)。婴幼儿是在什么时候以及如何获得英语术语“in”中描述的遏制概念或韩语术语“kkita”中描述的紧凑概念的？例如，从婴儿的非语言空间范畴中提取的特定语言语义范畴是婴儿对其空间世界进行非语言加工的结果吗？或者，在语义空间范畴中表达的概念是作为对特定语言的经验而获得的吗？目前的研究项目就是为了解决这些问题。采用多方面、多方法论的方法来探索婴幼儿的感知、认知和语言发展的各个方面。具体地说，该研究计划通过探索婴儿在不同语言环境中形成的空间范畴的类型，来探索非语言空间认知在习得特定语言语义空间范畴中的作用。该研究计划通过记录语言是否能激发婴儿形成非语言和语义空间范畴，来探索语言输入在形成特定语言语义范畴中的可能作用。这项研究还考察了来自不同语言环境的婴幼儿对空间语言的早期习得。这一结果有望促进我们对婴儿分类和幼儿早期语言发展过程的理解。这些结果还将解决用英语以外的语言抚养的婴儿和蹒跚学步的孩子的发育可能存在的差异。该研究计划与一个教育计划相结合，在该计划中，将招募来自代表性不足的少数族裔的学生来帮助进行研究，特别是那些有第一手谈判两种语言经验的学生，以及能够就正在探索的语言思维问题提供内部观点的人。由于将使用许多不同的方法，学生将获得使用各种方法的专业知识，如视觉习惯化、优先观察、动作模仿任务和行动理解，以及对每种方法产生的不同数据的理解。这一教育计划的目标是为该领域提供来自代表不足的少数族裔的独立研究人员，他们将寻求学术职位，作为科学家和教育工作者为该领域做出贡献，并为其他代表不足的少数族裔的学生充当导师和榜样。