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

语言是我们人类独有的。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。这种语言认知的联系给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)表示为独特的个体(魔术)或作为对象类别(例如，狗)的成员，并且我们可以在这些不同的表示之间毫不费力地切换。这种认知灵活性得到了语言的支持：一个物体的命名方式--无论是作为一个独特的个体还是一个类别的成员--影响着我们在脑海中表示该物体的方式。这种语言认知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，这种联系可能早到足以指导婴儿发育，甚至在婴儿开始说话之前。例如，到12个月时，甚至在婴儿说出几个以上的单词之前，用相同的、一贯使用的名称命名一组物体(例如，狗、马、鸭)，会将婴儿的注意力集中在它们的共同之处，并支持物体分类(动物)。但是，为这些相同的物体取一个不同的名字会产生非常不同的效果，让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表现为一个独特的个体。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？这种联系如何促进婴儿学习物体及其名称的能力？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够在物体的命名和表示之间建立紧密的联系。为了解决这个发展问题，这项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早期对物体的表征是否足够强大，以帮助他们对现实世界中的物体进行推理。为了解决这个表征问题，这项研究测试了婴儿在动态事件中四处移动、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链接的阶段。第三个目标是回答关于稳定和变革的问题。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，直到他们长到18个月。有了这个丰富的数据集，这项研究调查了9个月和12个月大的婴儿的语言认知iLink是否与他们在前18个月的词汇量增长有关。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。结果可能有助于识别有语言延迟或损伤风险的非常年轻的婴儿，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。它支持对妇女和其他历史上代表性不足的社区成员进行培训。它还深化了与我们种族和民族多元化社区中的家庭、学员和工作人员的伙伴关系。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 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.