Learning to learn words: Tests of a four-step process

描述（由申请人提供）：学习第一语言的词义应该是一项艰巨的任务。要学习的可能意义的数量和范围是巨大的，有些人认为，从提供给幼儿的典型信息中是无法确定的。尽管存在这些挑战，但在18到30个月大的时候，孩子的词汇量会增加10倍。这个年龄段的孩子学的很多新词都是名词。先前的研究表明，偏见或限制会使孩子们的注意力集中在物体的正确特征上，从而使学习新名词的任务变得更容易。尽管对这些单词学习偏差有相当多的实证支持，然而，人们对它们的起源或实现机制知之甚少。这是本建议的重点。目前的研究将测试和增强一个基于加工的发展帐户如何知觉词学习偏见发展。具体来说，本文提出的实证研究是基于这样一种观点，即幼儿在学习新的固体物体名称时表现出的关注形状的倾向是早期名词词汇的发展产物。13项研究将测试关于幼儿词汇、类别知识和单词学习偏差发展之间关系的具体预测。因此，这些研究将进一步加深我们对支持幼儿智能词汇学习能力的机制的理解。本研究对语言学习的发育迟缓有潜在的启示，特别是对那些有语言学习迟缓迹象的儿童。先前在这一领域的研究表明，儿童在大量接触旨在产生早熟词汇学习偏见的词汇时，不仅会产生早期偏见，而且会在随后的实验室外习得新单词时表现出加速。这表明有可能采取干预措施来帮助单词学习迟缓的儿童。然而，在开发这种干预措施之前，需要了解更多关于支持单词学习偏见发展的基本过程。因此，本研究旨在为该技术的应用奠定基础

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Learning word meanings in a first language should be a difficult task. The number and range of possible meanings to be learned is immense and, by some arguments, indeterminate from the typical information provided to young children. Despite these challenges, between 18- and 30-months-of-age the typical child's productive vocabulary increases tenfold. Many of the new words children learn at this age are nouns. Previous research suggests that the task of learning new nouns is made easier by biases or constraints that direct children's attention to the correct features of objects for name learning. Despite considerable empirical support for these word learning biases, however, little is known about their origins or the mechanisms by which they are implemented. This is the focus of the present proposal. The present study will test and augment a processed-based developmental account of how perceptual word learning biases develop. Specifically, the empirical studies proposed here are based on the proposal that the bias to attend shape young children demonstrate when learning names for novel solid objects is the developmental product of the early noun vocabulary. Thirteen studies will test specific predictions concerning the relation between young children's vocabularies, category knowledge, and the development of word learning biases. In so doing these studies will further our understanding of the mechanisms that support young children's smart word learning abilities. The present research has potential implications for developmental delays in language learning and specifically for children who evidence delays in learning words. Previous research in this area suggests that children given intensive exposure to sets of words designed to create a precocious word learning bias not only develop an early bias but show acceleration in their subsequent acquisition of new words outside the laboratory. This suggests the possibility of interventions to help children with delays in word learning. Before such interventions can be developed, however, much more needs to be known about the basic processes that support the development of word learning biases. Thus, the present research is designed to lay the foundation for the application of what is known about the development of word learning biases to children with delays in word learning.