Collaborative Research: Language-Specific Input, Cross-Cultural Differences and Spatial Cognition: A Case of 'Support' Relation

合作研究：特定语言输入、跨文化差异与空间认知：“支持”关系案例

• 批准号: 0721263
• 负责人: Soonja Choi
• 金额: $ 16.5万
• 依托单位: San Diego State University Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2011-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0721263&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Language; Specific; Input

The goal of the present proposal is to understand the relation between language and cognitive development in infants and toddlers . The researchers propose a two-way interaction between language and cognition from a very early stage in development. This project will focus on the domain of the spatial relation of support (e.g., placing a target object on a table). Infants already explore many aspects of support relations well before language begins and yet languages divide up these relations in significantly different ways. To understand the relation between language and cognition, the researchers propose to uncover infants' nonverbal abilities to form abstract categories of support relations (e.g., horizontal vs. vertical support, support by attachment), and how such abilities interact with the language they hear in acquiring the meaning of the spatial words in their language. The researchers take a multi-language and multi-method approach to investigate this interaction. Specifically, they examine the development of nonlinguistic and semantic categories of support relations in children learning English, Korean, German, or Spanish, language groups that contrast interestingly in how they organize various support relations in their language. In examining the effect of environmental inputs on children's spatial cognition, the studies compare (across the four language groups) linguistic and gestural aspects of maternal speech when they talk about support events (putting x on y) to their children. For this goal, for each language, the researchers will conduct a longitudinal study following parent-child interactions in a naturalistic setting (i.e., the child's home) starting from 10 months (child's age) for a year and half will also be conducted. A cross-sectional, elicitation study to compare cross-cultural differences in parental talking is also planned. To understand how infants and toddlers organize and categorize various types of support relations, the researchers also will conduct experimental studies to systematically investigate the development in infants' organization of spatial categories. By examining several age groups from the preverbal period to early childhood (from 10 to 27 months of age), the studies will document how the nonlinguistic categories of support formed in infancy may be influenced by the acquisition of the spatial terms of support in their language. To best assess the interaction between infants' abilities and their environment, the investigation combines several methodologies in an integrative way, including naturalistic, longitudinal methods, cross-sectional elicitations methods, and experimental cross-sectional approaches. The two co-PIs have yielded cross-cultural findings on the development of spatial cognition and spatial language in English- and Korean-learning children that have contributed to a recent rethinking of the early relationship between language and cognition. In the proposed project, they add a new dimension to their investigation by addressing the role of parents' input in the development of spatial cognition and by pinpointing the linguistic elements that drive infants' categorization of support into the language-specific semantic categories. Overall, the proposed study will contribute to understanding more precisely the nature of the interaction between language and cognition in early childhood.The international collaboration among the researchers in this project lends a unique methodological approach to the research questions and provides a wide range of training opportunities for the researchers and their students. Because of the cross-linguistic nature of the project, they plan to recruit and train students from underrepresented minorities to assist with various aspects of the project. The results from the project also will contribute much needed data from infants and toddlers underrepresented in developmental research. The results will be disseminated broadly, in academic (including international outlets) and non-academic settings (via workshops and presentations to teachers, parents, and daycare workers).

本研究的目的是了解婴幼儿语言和认知发展之间的关系。 研究人员提出，语言和认知之间的双向互动从发展的早期阶段开始。 本项目将侧重于支持的空间关系领域（例如，将目标对象放置在桌子上）。 婴儿在开始使用语言之前就已经探索了支持关系的许多方面，然而语言以显著不同的方式划分这些关系。 为了理解语言和认知之间的关系，研究人员建议揭示婴儿形成支持关系抽象类别的非语言能力（例如，水平与垂直支持，通过依恋的支持），以及这些能力如何与他们所听到的语言相互作用，以获得他们语言中空间词的含义。 研究人员采用多语言和多方法来研究这种相互作用。 具体来说，他们研究了儿童学习英语，韩语，德语或西班牙语的非语言和语义类别的支持关系的发展，有趣的是，他们如何在他们的语言组织各种支持关系的语言群体的对比。在研究环境输入对儿童空间认知的影响时，研究比较了（四个语言组）母亲在向孩子谈论支持事件（将x放在y上）时的语言和手势方面。 为了实现这一目标，对于每种语言，研究人员将在自然环境中进行亲子互动后进行纵向研究（即，从10个月（儿童年龄）开始，为期一年半。 一个横截面，启发式研究，比较父母说话的跨文化差异也计划。 为了了解婴幼儿如何组织和分类各种类型的支持关系，研究人员还将进行实验研究，系统地调查婴儿组织空间类别的发展。通过研究从语言前时期到幼儿期（10至27个月）的几个年龄组，研究将记录婴儿期形成的非语言支持类别如何受到他们语言中空间支持术语的影响。 为了更好地评估婴儿的能力和他们的环境之间的相互作用，调查结合了几种方法，在一个综合的方式，包括自然的，纵向的方法，横截面的启发方法，和实验横截面的方法。这两个合作PI已经产生了跨文化的发现，在英语和韩语学习的儿童，有助于重新思考语言和认知之间的早期关系的空间认知和空间语言的发展。 在拟议的项目中，他们通过解决父母的输入在空间认知发展中的作用，并通过精确定位驱动婴儿将支持分类为语言特定语义类别的语言元素，为他们的调查增加了一个新的维度。 总体而言，拟议的研究将有助于更准确地理解幼儿期语言和认知之间相互作用的性质。该项目研究人员之间的国际合作为研究问题提供了独特的方法论方法，并为研究人员及其学生提供了广泛的培训机会。由于该项目的跨语言性质，他们计划从代表性不足的少数群体中招募和培训学生，以协助该项目的各个方面。该项目的结果还将为发育研究中代表性不足的婴幼儿提供急需的数据。研究结果将在学术（包括国际渠道）和非学术环境（通过研讨会和向教师、家长和日托工作者的介绍）中广泛传播。