VOCABULARY EXPANSION IN SEVERE MENTAL RETARDATION

严重智力低下患者的词汇扩展

• 批准号: 6387844
• 负责人: KRISTA M WILKINSON
• 金额: $ 10.71万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-04-01 至 2003-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6387844
• 关键词: Williams syndrome; behavioral /social science research tag; child (0-11); clinical research; cognition; human subject; language development; language disorders; memory; mental retardation; neural information processing; verbal learning; vocabulary

DESCRIPTION: In typically-developing children initially slow, one-at-a-time word learning is followed by an apparent explosion in their lexicon. One estimate suggests that children are learning up to nine new words a day. By contrast, for some individuals with severe mental retardation new words enter the lexicon only through slow and deliberate effort. Yet word learning is a foundational component of human development, necessary for advanced linguistic functions and contributing to complex representational skills (e.g., categorization). To the extent that a cognitive disability interferes with word learning, progress in these domains will be correspondingly limited. It is therefore essential to explore in detail the nature of lexical impairments in severe mental retardation. The existence of difficulties in lexical acquisition among individuals with severe mental retardation raises important questions. When rapid vocabulary expansion occurs, what linguistic cognitive processes support that learning? When it does not occur, what skills are deficient or absent? A phenomenon called fast mapping may be of greatest potential relevance for rapid vocabulary expansion. Fast mapping refers to a quick, initial partial understanding of a new word's meaning derived from the context of word use. Fast mapping has been argued to facilitate the vocabulary explosion. This proposed role has received empirical confirmation in typical youngsters and children with Down syndrome. Yet evidence from children with atypical cognition/language has recently challenged the universality of this relation. The Principal Investigator's studies have added to the preliminary evidence of selective deficits in fast mapping among individuals with severe mental retardation, William's syndrome, or specific language impairments. The deficits are most often observed when individuals attempt to apply the principle for the purpose of vocabulary expansion. These recent findings oblige a more systematic analysis of the precise role of the principle in learning outcomes in mental retardation. Is fast mapping at risk in individuals with severe mental retardation, potentially limiting their vocabulary expansion? This application proposes a five-year study of vocabulary expansion and delay, focusing specifically on rapid expansion of an extant, but limited, vocabulary. The proposed series of studies will implement methods developed by the Principal Investigator that will enable the systematic analysis of unresolved questions of lexical expansion in severe mental retardation. The project has four specific aims that will be addressed in the course of four studies: 1) To examine the relation of fast mapping, rapid vocabulary expansion, and nonverbal processes, in order to explore the nature of lexical expansion in severe mental retardation; 2) To explore the points of greatest vulnerability for learning through fast mapping by explicitly taxing participants' skills and observing the ways in which breakdowns occur; 3) To extend the analysis from the commonly examined object-word learning to the acquisition of action-related words, to determine whether processes of fast mapping are similar for the two types of form/class categories; 4) To examine the basis underlying children's apparent assumption that new words should and do map to unnamed objects, and whether this assumption is intact among individuals with severe mental retardation.

描述：在典型的发展中儿童最初缓慢，一次一个 单词学习之后，他们的词汇量明显激增。 一 据估计，儿童每天学习多达9个新单词。 通过 相比之下，对于一些患有严重精神发育迟滞的人来说， 只有通过缓慢而刻意的努力才能进入词典。 然而， 学习是人类发展的基本组成部分， 先进的语言功能，并有助于复杂的代表性 技能（例如，分类）。 如果认知障碍 干扰单词学习，在这些领域的进展将是 相应地有限。 因此，有必要详细探讨 严重智力低下患者词汇障碍的性质。 存在 严重精神分裂症患者词汇习得的困难 发育迟缓引起了一些重要的问题。 当词汇量迅速扩大 发生时，什么语言认知过程支持这种学习？ 时 没有发生，什么技能是缺乏或缺乏？ 这种现象称为 快速映射对于快速词汇表可能具有最大的潜在相关性 扩张. 快速映射是指快速、初步地部分了解 一个新词的意义来自于词的使用上下文。 快速映射具有 是为了促进词汇量的激增。 这一拟议的作用 在典型的青少年和患有唐氏症的儿童中， 综合征 然而，来自具有非典型认知/语言的儿童的证据表明， 最近对这种关系的普遍性提出了挑战。 校长 研究人员的研究增加了选择性的初步证据， 严重精神发育迟滞者的快速绘图缺陷， 威廉氏综合症，或特殊语言障碍。 赤字最 当个人试图将原则应用于 扩大词汇量。 这些最新的发现要求我们 系统地分析了这一原则在学习中的作用 精神发育迟滞的结果。 快速映射在患有以下疾病的个体中是否存在风险 严重的智力障碍，可能限制他们的词汇扩展？ 这项申请提出了一项为期五年的词汇扩展研究， 延迟，特别侧重于现有的快速扩张，但有限， 词汇. 拟议的一系列研究将采用所制定的方法， 由主要研究者进行，以便系统分析 严重智力迟钝者词汇扩展的未解决问题。 的 该项目有四个具体目标，将在四个过程中解决 研究内容：1）考察快速映射、快速词汇 扩展和非语言过程，以探索 重度智力落后的词汇扩展; 2）探讨 通过显式快速映射进行学习的最大漏洞 对参与者的技能征税，并观察 3）从常用的宾语词扩展分析 学习动作相关词汇的习得，判断是否 快速映射的过程对于两种类型的表单/类是相似的 （4）研究儿童表面的基础 假设新词应该并且确实映射到未命名的对象，以及是否 这一假设在患有严重智力迟钝的人中是完整的。