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

描述(由申请者提供)：学习第一语言的词义应该是一项困难的任务。要学习的可能意义的数量和范围是巨大的，从一些论点来看，从提供给幼儿的典型信息中是不确定的。尽管有这些挑战，但在18到30个月大的孩子中，典型的产出性词汇量增加了十倍。孩子们在这个年龄段学习的许多新单词都是名词。以前的研究表明，通过偏见或限制引导儿童注意用于学习名字的物体的正确特征，可以使学习新名词的任务变得更容易。然而，尽管这些词汇学习偏向得到了相当多的经验支持，但人们对它们的起源或实现机制知之甚少。这是本提案的重点。本研究将测试和补充一个基于加工的发展解释，说明知觉词汇学习偏差是如何发展起来的。具体地说，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的名字时表现出的注意形状偏见是早期名词词汇发展的产物。13项研究将检验关于幼儿词汇、类别知识和词汇学习偏差发展之间关系的具体预测。通过这样做，这些研究将进一步加深我们对支持幼儿智能单词学习能力的机制的理解。本研究对语言学习中的发展迟缓有潜在的影响，特别是对那些表现出单词学习迟缓的儿童来说。这一领域以前的研究表明，儿童在密集接触旨在形成早熟单词学习偏见的词组时，不仅会发展出早期偏见，而且会在随后的实验室外加速习得新单词。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，在制定这样的干预措施之前，我们需要更多地了解支持词汇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。 已知的词汇学习偏向对词汇学习迟缓儿童的发展。

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.