Moving Beyond Size: Word Meanings Underlying Children's Productive Vocabulary

语言习得主要发生在生命的最初几年。衡量儿童语言发展的一个常见指标是他们的产出性词汇量，它可以很好地预测未来的学习成绩、社会情感功能、经济繁荣等。然而，为什么词汇量能预测生活结果，目前还不清楚。这项拟议的研究通过检验儿童词义的使用是否预示着词汇的增长，促进了对儿童长期健康、繁荣和福利的科学和理解。研究人员预测，词汇量只是对儿童词义的粗略测量，词义塑造了儿童的学习方式；也就是说，使用一个词义可以帮助儿童获得同一单词的新意义，这反过来又有助于儿童学习更多的单词和词义。研究人员通过收集父母的大样本数据创建了一个数据库，这些数据报告了孩子在9个月的时间里使用词义的情况。这个数据库可能会为词汇使用和增长的发展轨迹带来新的见解，从而为该领域提供无数的二手数据分析和研究机会。参与该项目的不同学生研究人员接受了关于如何研究儿童语言发展的跨学科培训。为什么儿童早期的词汇量预测晚年的生活结果仍不清楚。研究者的主要假设是，词知识是对词和词义进行推理的基础(即词知识是范畴归纳的先验)。也就是说，使用一个词义可以帮助孩子获得同一个词的新意义，这反过来又有助于孩子学习更多的词和词义。为了直接验证他们的假设，研究人员开发了一种新的词汇发展测量方法，它超越了产出性词汇量，并测量了包括意义(S)、活动、社交伙伴(S)、空间位置(S)和儿童词汇产生的时间/频率在内的因素。与该领域的其他研究人员合作，研究人员选择了一些变量来衡量儿童的一般语言、认知、运动、社交情绪和适应行为，以提供与他们的词义使用相关的儿童发展的整体评估。在改进和验证了这一衡量标准后，PI和团队通过收集来自父母的大样本数据创建了一个数据库，这些样本报告了孩子在9个月内使用词义的情况。对数据进行分析，以确定在时间1测量的词义的数量和/或多样性是否(A)预测在时间2以后学习单词和词义，以及(B)在比词汇量更大的程度上预测语言以外的发展结果(在研究期间和在时间2测量)。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Language acquisition largely occurs during the first few years of life. A common measurement of children’s language development is their productive vocabulary size, which is highly predictive of later academic achievement, social-emotional functioning, economic prosperity, and more. However, why vocabulary size predicts life outcomes remains unclear. The proposed research advances science and understanding of children’s long-term health, prosperity and welfare by examining whether use of children’s word meanings predicts vocabulary growth. The investigators predict that vocabulary size is simply a coarse measurement of children’s word meanings, and that word meanings shape how children learn; that is, using one word meaning can help children to acquire new meanings for the same word, which in turn helps children learn more words and word meanings. The investigators create a database by collecting data from a large sample of parents, which report children’s use of word meanings over a 9-month period. This database is likely to lead to new insights into developmental trajectories of vocabulary use and growth, and thus afford myriad secondary data analyses and research opportunities for the field. The diverse group of student researchers working on this project receives interdisciplinary training on how to study children’s language development.Why children’s early vocabulary size predicts late life outcomes remains unclear. The investigators’ primary hypothesis is that word knowledge serves as the basis for inferences about words and word meanings (i.e., word knowledge serves as categorical inductive priors). That is, using one word meaning can help children to acquire new meanings for the same word, which in turn helps children learn more words and word meanings. To directly test their hypothesis, the investigators develop a new measure of vocabulary development that goes beyond productive vocabulary size, and measures factors including the meaning(s), activities, social partner(s), spatial location(s), and timing/frequency of children’s word production. In collaboration with other researchers in the field, the investigators have selected variables to measure children’s general language, cognitive, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior, to provide a holistic assessment of children’s development in relation to their word meaning use. After refining and validating the measure, the PI and team create a database by collecting data from a large sample of parents, which report children’s use of word meanings over a 9-month period. The data are analyzed to determine whether the quantity and/or diversity of word meanings measured at Time 1 (a) predict later learning of words and word meanings at Time 2 and (b) predict developmental outcomes beyond language (measured during study and at Time 2) to a greater degree than vocabulary size.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.