Integrating the Timescales of Word Learning

整合单词学习的时间尺度

• 批准号: 8289699
• 负责人: LARISSA K SAMUELSON
• 金额: $ 23.46万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-07-01 至 2015-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8289699
• 关键词: Accounting; Address; Behavior; Binding; Brain; Categories; Child; Child Development; Cognition; Cognitive; Complex; Comprehension; Coupling; Decision Making; Development; Goals; Grant; Individual; Intervention; Language; Learning; Link; Modeling; Motor; Participant; Population; Process; Production; Research; Shapes; Short-Term Memory; System; Testing; Time; Visual; Visuospatial; Vocabulary; Word Processing; Work; base; behavior prediction; cognitive function; executive function; flexibility; long term memory; memory process; novel; premature; programs; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; simulation; specific language impairment; theories; visual cognition

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Word learning is a complex phenomenon because it is tied to many different behaviors. It also involves many different perceptual and conceptual systems and is extended in time. Although complex, achieving a richer understanding of early word learning is a fundamental goal given that vocabulary development is correlated with later cognitive functioning and with processes that have a pervasive impact on general cognitive abilities such as executive function. Moreover, deficits in early word learning have a profound effect on cognitive functioning in atypical populations including children with specific language impairment. Given the complexity of word learning, a central challenge has been to establish empirical paradigms that effectively reveal the processes of word learning and to develop new theories that uncover the mechanisms that move word learning forward. Our previous work suggests word learning occurs in a cascade of individual decisions about word meaning in the moment. These decisions build on each other to shape subsequent decisions and, over multiple timescales, create developmental change. The goal of this grant is to develop and test a unified model of word learning that captures processes at both the second-to-second and developmental timescales and provides a process-based account of how individual behaviors accumulate to create development. The research plan builds and tests this model. Specific Aim 1 creates a unified model of word learning behaviors that extends beyond our prior work on noun generalization to include processes of comprehension, production, referent selection, and generalization from multiple exemplars. Specific Aim 2 adds a more complete account of object-word interactions and the development of word learning biases. Specific Aim 3 adds a memory process, enabling the model to learn a lexicon over multiple timescales and develop word learning biases. The end result of this work will be models of individual developmental trajectories that integrate word learning processes over multiple timescales-a necessary step towards intervention in cases of atypical development such as SLI, or prematurity. The integration of processes over multiple timescales and at the level of individual participants is an issue few models have addressed directly. Furthermore, the model we propose brings together work on object processing in visual cognition with work on early word learning an is related to a larger program of neurally-grounded modeling work that integrates across multiple visual, spatial, motor and language systems. Thus this model will be foundational to a full understanding of the multiple systems involved in word learning and vocabulary development, and to the interaction of these processes with cognition more generally. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goal of this grant is to develop and test a unified model of word learning that captures both children's individual uses of words, and how these individual behaviors accumulate to create development. Achieving this goal will have broad implications for our understanding of child development because early vocabulary development is correlated with later cognitive functioning and with processes that have a pervasive impact on general cognitive abilities. The end result of this work will be models of individual children's development-a necessary step towards intervention in cases of atypical development such as late talkers, SLI, or prematurity.

描述(申请人提供)：单词学习是一个复杂的现象，因为它与许多不同的行为联系在一起。它还涉及许多不同的感知和概念系统，并在时间上延伸。尽管复杂，但实现对早期单词学习的更丰富的理解是一个根本目标，因为词汇发展与后来的认知功能以及对执行功能等一般认知能力产生普遍影响的过程相关。此外，早期单词学习的缺陷对非典型人群的认知功能有深远的影响，包括有特定语言障碍的儿童。鉴于单词学习的复杂性，一个核心挑战是建立有效揭示单词学习过程的经验范式，并开发新的理论来揭示推动单词学习向前发展的机制。我们之前的工作表明，单词学习是在个体对词义的一连串决定中发生的。这些决定相互影响，形成后续的决定，并在多个时间尺度上创造发展变化。这项资助的目标是开发和测试一个统一的单词学习模型，该模型可以捕捉秒到秒和发展时间尺度上的过程，并提供基于过程的描述，说明个人行为是如何积累起来的，以创造发展。研究计划建立并测试了这一模型。具体目标1建立了一个统一的单词学习行为模型，该模型超越了我们之前关于名词泛化的工作，包括从多个样本中理解、产生、指称选择和泛化的过程。《特殊目的2》更全面地描述了物体与单词的相互作用和单词学习偏向的发展。特殊目的3增加了记忆过程，使模型能够在多个时间尺度上学习词汇并形成单词学习偏差。这项工作的最终结果将是建立个体发展轨迹的模型，在多个时间尺度上整合单词学习过程--这是对SLI或早产儿等非典型发育情况进行干预的必要步骤。在多个时间尺度上和在单个参与者一级整合进程是一个很少有模型直接处理的问题。此外，我们提出的模型将视觉认知中的对象处理工作与早期单词学习和学习工作结合在一起，与一个更大的基于神经基础的建模工作有关，该工作集成了多个视觉、空间、运动和语言系统。因此，这一模型将为全面理解词汇学习和词汇发展所涉及的多个系统，以及这些过程与更广泛的认知之间的相互作用奠定基础。 与公共健康相关：这笔赠款的目标是开发和测试一个统一的单词学习模式，该模式既能捕捉儿童对单词的个人使用，又能了解这些个人行为是如何积累起来的，以创造发展。实现这一目标将对我们对儿童发展的理解产生广泛的影响，因为早期的词汇发展与后来的认知功能以及对一般认知能力产生普遍影响的过程相关。这项工作的最终结果将是个别儿童的发展模型--这是对诸如说话迟缓、SLI或早产儿等非典型发育情况进行干预的必要步骤。