Naming names: How, and how early, does object naming influence infants' fundamental object representations?

命名：物体命名如何以及多久影响婴儿的基本物体表征？

• 批准号: 2330011
• 负责人: Sandra Waxman
• 金额: $ 59.97万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2330011&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Naming; names; How; how; early

Language is unique to our species. Its power comes not only from its complexity, but also from its link to human cognition. This language-cognition link gives us exceptional conceptual flexibility. For example, we can readily represent any object (e.g., my family dog) either as a unique individual (Magic) or as a member of an object category (eg., a dog), and we switch effortlessly among these different representations. This cognitive flexibility is supported by language: how an object is named - either as a unique individual or a member of a category – influences how we represent that object in our minds. This language-cognition link has powerful downstream consequences: it guides how we learn and reason about, guiding our learning and reasoning. Striking new research reveals that this link may be in place early enough to guide infant development, even before infants have begun to talk. For example, by 12 months, even before infants say more than a few words, naming a group of objects (e.g., a dog, a horse, a duck) with the same, consistently-applied name focuses infants’ attention on what is common about them and supports object categorization (animal). But providing a different name for each of those same objects has a very different effect, focusing infants’ attention on what is different about them and supporting their representation of each as a unique individual. This is compelling, but it leaves open an important question. How do infants acquire this uniquely human language-cognition link in the first place? And how does this link fuel infants’ ability to learn about objects and their names? This project answers these inter-related questions. The first goal is to discover whether infants as young as 7 months can establish the tight link between how an object is named and how they represent it. To address this developmental question, the study tests the effect of naming objects on infants’ representation and memory of those objects. The second goal is to discover whether infants’ early representations of objects are strong enough to help them reason about objects in the real world. To address this representational question, the study tests infants’ memory and representation of objects when they move around, hiding and reappearing in dynamic events. the stage for building an increasingly precise and flexible link between object naming and object representation. The third goal is to answer questions about stability and change over development. To do so, we combine all data from all infants who participated in the study. We supplement this vocabulary assessments of these same infants, collected at 3-month intervals until they reach 18 months. Armed with this rich data set, the study examines whether infants’ language-cognition ilink at 9 months and 12 months of age is related to their vocabulary growth across the first eighteen months. This project sheds light on early language acquisition, cognitive development, and the relation between them. The outcomes may help to identify very young infants at risk for language delay or impairment, and to design interventions to advance their language and cognitive advances. The project also has a strong training mission. It supports training of women and members of other historically underrepresented communities. It also deepens partnerships with families, trainees and staff in our racially and ethnically diverse communityThis 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.

语言是人类独有的。它的力量不仅来自于它的复杂性，还来自于它与人类认知的联系。这种语言与认知的联系赋予了我们非凡的概念灵活性。例如，我们可以很容易地将任何对象（例如，我家的狗）表示为一个独特的个体（Magic）或作为对象类别的成员(例如。我们毫不费力地在这些不同的表征之间切换。这种认知的灵活性得到了语言的支持：一个物体被命名的方式——无论是作为一个独特的个体还是作为一个类别的成员——都会影响我们在脑海中对这个物体的描述。这种语言与认知的联系具有强大的下游影响：它指导我们如何学习和推理，指导我们的学习和推理。一项引人注目的新研究表明，这种联系可能在婴儿开始说话之前就已经存在，足以指导婴儿的发育。例如，到12个月时，甚至在婴儿会说几个单词之前，用相同的、一致的名字来命名一组物体（例如，狗，马，鸭子）可以使婴儿的注意力集中在它们的共同点上，并支持物体分类（动物）。但是，为相同的物体提供不同的名称会产生非常不同的效果，使婴儿的注意力集中在它们的不同之处，并支持他们将每个物体视为独特的个体。这是令人信服的，但它留下了一个重要的问题。婴儿最初是如何获得这种独特的人类语言认知联系的呢？这种联系是如何促进婴儿学习物体及其名称的能力的呢？这个项目回答了这些相互关联的问题。第一个目标是发现7个月大的婴儿是否能在一个物体的命名方式和他们如何表示这个物体之间建立紧密的联系。为了解决这个发展问题，该研究测试了命名物体对婴儿对这些物体的表征和记忆的影响。第二个目标是发现婴儿对物体的早期表征是否足以帮助他们对现实世界中的物体进行推理。为了解决这个表征性问题，该研究测试了婴儿在动态事件中四处走动、隐藏和再现时对物体的记忆和表征。在对象命名和对象表示之间建立日益精确和灵活的联系的阶段。第三个目标是回答关于稳定和变化而不是发展的问题。为此，我们结合了所有参与研究的婴儿的所有数据。我们补充了这些婴儿的词汇评估，每隔3个月收集一次，直到他们满18个月。有了这些丰富的数据，该研究调查了婴儿在9个月和12个月大时的语言认知联系是否与他们前18个月的词汇增长有关。这个项目揭示了早期语言习得、认知发展以及它们之间的关系。这些结果可能有助于识别有语言迟缓或障碍风险的幼儿，并设计干预措施来促进他们的语言和认知进步。该项目还具有很强的培训使命。它支持培训妇女和其他历史上代表性不足的社区的成员。它还加深了与家庭、学员和工作人员在我们的种族和民族多元化社区的伙伴关系。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。