Effects of input on early word learning

本研究将结合词汇学习测试来考察婴儿指导言语的各个方面。我们将包括家庭录音（研究I）或培训期（研究II），然后进行实验测试以确定学习成果。研究一将探讨（a）一个词出现的频率和（B）用法的变异性对词汇学习的影响。我们将利用自然发生的个体差异，在家庭使用婴儿的名字-无论是频率和变化，其形式（即，不同的名字或昵称）-以及他们自己的名字是婴儿识别的第一个单词形式的既定发现。我们将开始安排6个月大的婴儿在家中录音，以便在没有任何观察者的情况下获得自发的输入语音，以确定婴儿姓名的使用量和形式。然后，研究I的实验室测试将呈现给婴儿“目标”单词，如自行车或杯子，他们已经被发现在那个年龄无法识别，作为一个简短的段落的一部分，其中单词反复跟随（a）孩子的名字或（B）一个紧密匹配的替代名称。实验的测试部分将涉及两个目标词与两个陌生词随机交替呈现。然后，从听（a）单词的时间差异中收集学习结果，与听（B）单词的时间相比，（a）单词与熟悉的名字相结合，（b）单词与结构匹配的不熟悉的名字和两个不熟悉的单词相结合。我们预计，那些在家中录音中更多地使用自己名字和/或更少变体的婴儿，会比其他婴儿更长时间地倾听与他们名字相结合的单词。 其次，我们感兴趣的是确定孤立地听单词是否比听句子中的单词更能带来更好的学习效果。我们将为年满11个月的婴儿的父母提供一本图画书，每幅图画的名字要么印成一个单词的标签，要么印成一个简短的多单词句子的最后一个单词，每本书包含六个单词，以每种方式呈现（每个单词对一半的孩子单独呈现，另一半则以句子形式呈现）。父母将被要求在三周内每天阅读两次这本书，而不偏离我们提供的措辞。训练期结束后，婴儿将在实验室进行测试。他们中的一半将被测试与单词列表对比（a）孤立训练的单词集，（B）在句子中训练的单词集，以及（c）未训练的单词。另一半的婴儿将接受一项“分段任务”的测试，该任务要求识别连续语音段落中的单词，并再次与三种单词类型进行对比。学习结果将再次以听力时间来衡量，这里是孤立地训练的单词和句子，以及未经训练的单词。我们预计，在这两项任务中，婴儿对孤立训练的单词的优先注意率会高于在最终条件下训练的单词（这将因婴儿而异），尽管所有婴儿都预计会比未经训练的单词更长时间地关注训练过的单词。这里研究的问题，婴儿语音输入的数量和变化的意义以及它所呈现的语境，都是研究输入对语言发展的影响的重要问题。结合显示与婴儿使用的语言数量以及输入语音中孤立词使用程度的文化差异的初步结果（Keren-Portnoy等人，2010年），拟议的研究可以导致更有效和更坚实的研究为基础的干预计划与幼儿的父母，特别是在文化中，父母不经常说话，他们的婴儿。

This research will examine aspects of Infant Directed Speech in conjunction with tests of word learning. We will include a home recording (Study I) or training period (Study II), followed by experimental testing to ascertain learning outcomes. Study I will explore the effect on word learning of (a) the frequency of occurrence of a word and (b) variability in usage. We will exploit the naturally occurring individual differences in family uses of infant names - as regards both frequency of use and variability in its forms (i.e., varied names or nicknames) - and of the well established finding that their own names are among the first word forms that infants recognize. We will begin by arranging for the home recording of 6-month-old infants in order to obtain spontaneous input speech, in the absence of any observer, to establish the amount and form of use of the infant's name. The lab test for Study I will then present to infants 'target' words such as bike or cup, which they have been found not to recognize at that age, as part of a short passage in which the word repeatedly follows either (a) the child's name or (b) a closely matched alternate name. The test portion of the experiment will involve presentation of the two target words in random alternation with two unfamiliarised words. The learning outcome is then gleaned from differences in listening time to the (a) word, heard combined with the familiar name, as compared with the (b) word, heard combined with a structurally matched unfamiliar name and the two unfamiliarised words. We expect those infants whose home recording included more uses of their name and/or fewer variants to show longer listening to the words that were combined with their name in the passage than will the remaining infants. Secondly, we are interested in ascertaining whether or not hearing words in isolation leads to better learning outcomes than does hearing them embedded in sentences. We will provide parents of infants who have reached 11 months of age with a picture-book with the names of each image printed either as a one-word label or as the final word in a short multiword sentence, with each book containing six words presented in each way (with each word presented in isolation for half of the children, in sentences for the other half). The parents will be asked to read the book twice a day over a three-week period, without deviating from the wording we provide. After the training period the infants will be tested in the lab. Half of them will be tested with lists of words contrasting (a) the set of words trained in isolation, (b) those trained in sentences, and (c) untrained words. The other half of the infants will be tested on a 'segmentation task', which requires the identification of words in passages of continuous speech, again with passages contrasting the three word types. The learning outcome will again be measured in terms of listening times, here to words trained in isolation and in sentences and to untrained words. We expect that in both tasks infants will show a higher rate of preferential attention to the words trained in isolation in comparison with the words trained in the sentence-final condition (which will differ individually by infant), although all are expected to show longer looking to trained over untrained words. The issues investigated here, the significance of quantity and variability of speech input to infants and of the context in which it is presented, are both important questions in the study of the effects of input on language development. Taken together with preliminary results showing cultural differences in the quantity of language used with infants as well as in the degree of use of isolated words in input speech (Keren-Portnoy et al., 2010), the proposed research can lead to more efficient and more solidly research-based intervention programs with parents of young infants, especially in cultures in which parents do not often speak to their infants.