Collaborative Research: Connecting linguistic and perceptual development through symmetry

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The extent of children's knowledge of language at school entry predicts their later academic success, even for those disciplines not commonly associated with language skills, such as science and mathematics. For example, teachers tell children that “two and two is equal to four”, and that “the earth is similar to (or “is like”) a ball”. Our ultimate understanding of mathematical symbols and their combination are supported by language, through words and their syntactic combination. This research examines how children come to understand the abstract meaning of logical words such as “equal”, “similar”, and “and”. How do children learn that if X is similar to Y, Y must be similar to X? These examples have in common the key concept that is the focus of the planned research, the concept of symmetry – a central idea in perception, language and thought. Symmetry is a relation that remains the same even when reversed logically or physically. Thus, if X equals Y, Y must equal X, and if the button matches the shirt, so must the shirt match the button. Symmetry seems an exotic topic but in fact is foundational in reasoning, geometry, algebra, biology, and physics, and is threaded through the vocabulary, including nouns (“cousin”), verbs (“meet”), and adjectives (“similar”). Despite the ubiquity of symmetry in language and its formative connection to STEM, little is known about how preschoolers acquire an understanding of symmetrical words, or how they perceive symmetrical interactions. Answering these questions will help explain children’s differences in language abilities and STEM-related learning. All experiments examine how humans perceive, think and/or communicate about symmetry at different stages of development, from infancy to adulthood. Most employ real-time measures, in which eye gaze is recorded as participants hear speech describing scenes of individuals engaged in (a-)symmetrical interactions. A moment-by-moment record is obtained for how participants link scene and syntax and engage in learning of words with potentially (a-)symmetrical meanings. Study 1 examines whether preverbal infants distinguish between perceptually symmetrical vs. asymmetrical interactions, and how older children link perception to abstract symmetry. Study 2 examines when children come to have an adult understanding of symmetrical vs. asymmetrical syntax in language. Study 3 examines how learners combine evidence about symmetrical relations from perceptual and linguistic input. Research incorporates significant education and outreach: undergraduates are involved in research and trained in eyetracking; research occurs at museums and local preschools, where parents learn about developmental research, its importance, and outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.