Linking language and cognition in infancy: Entry points and developmental change

将婴儿期的语言和认知联系起来：切入点和发展变化

• 批准号: 8861876
• 负责人: SANDRA R WAXMAN
• 金额: $ 41.52万
• 依托单位: NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-08 至 2020-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8861876
• 关键词: Address; Age-Months; Basic Science; Birds; Categories; Code; Cognition; Cognitive; Complex; Concept Formation; Cues; Development; Early identification; Employee Strikes; Endowment; Environment; Evolution; Exposure to; Eye; Foundations; Hearing; Human; Impairment; Infant; Intervention; Intuition; Language; Language Delays; Language Development; Learning; Lemurs; Life; Light; Linguistics; Link; Madagascar; Mind; Primates; Process; Recruitment Activity; Research; Role; Series; Services; Shapes; Sign Language; Signal Transduction; Stimulus; System; To specify; United States National Institutes of Health; Work; base; cognitive development; cognitive process; design; experience; flexibility; forging; gaze; infancy; insight; nonhuman primate; programs; public health relevance; response; social; sound; vocalization

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): NIH - Linking language and cognition in infancy: Entry points and developmental change this proposal addresses fundamental issues of early language and conceptual development, and forges a precise link between them in infants' first year of life. Infants live in an enormously rich environment. Each day, they encounter new objects, while listening to a rich repertoire of sounds, including the sounds of their language. Amidst this richness, infants must identify the sounds of their native language and discover how these are linked to the world around them. Even before infants begin to speak, they identify the sounds of their language and link them to foundations of meaning. By 3 months of age, language supports infants' ability to form object categories. Initially, this link between language and cognition is quite broad: vocalizations of both human and non-human primates promote the formation of object categories. By 6 months, this link is tuned specifically to human vocalizations. The current proposal is designed to specify the scope of infants' initial link and t trace how it unfolds over the first year. Recruiting state-of-the-art analyses, this proposal will illuminate the developmental path infants take as they narrow in on the communicative signals of their species and link these signals to the foundations of meaning. Series I is designed to identify the range of signals that initially promote object categorization in human infants and how these are tuned over the first year. The studies examine infants' responses to vocalizations produced by human and non-human primates, mammals and birds, and also to manually-produced signals of sign language (ASL). Series II is designed to uncover how (and when) infants' exposure to language and other signals in the environment shapes the very possibility that they will link these signals to cognition. The studies, which examine infants' plasticity, wil pinpoint critical developmental windows for promoting language and conceptual development in all infants. Series III is designed to identify how infants come to interpret a signal (spoken or signed) as communicative. Taking infants' exquisite sensitivity to social cues (e.g., eye gaze) as a starting point, the studies consider whether infants interpret any signal (e.g., a tone sequence) as communicative if it is embedded within a rich communicative exchange. Humans are uniquely endowed with a natural capacity to build complex, flexible and creative systems of language and thought. This proposal, which forges a precise link between these systems, has far-reaching theoretical and practical implications. The proposed project broadens significantly the empirical and theoretical foundations of current research, and provides a window into the origins and evolution of infants' earliest links between conceptual and linguistic development. This work underscores the vital interaction between infants' natural endowments and the shaping role of the environment. It also builds a strong foundation for identifying infants with language delay or impairment, and serves as a springboard for designing targeted interventions to bolster their language and cognition.

 描述（由申请人提供）：美国国立卫生研究院-连接语言和认知在婴儿期：切入点和发展变化这一建议解决了早期语言和概念发展的基本问题，并在婴儿的第一年建立了它们之间的精确联系。婴儿生活在极其丰富的环境中。每天，他们都会遇到新的物体，同时聆听丰富的声音，包括他们语言的声音。在这种丰富性中，婴儿必须识别他们的母语的声音，并发现这些声音是如何与周围的世界联系在一起的。甚至在婴儿开始说话之前，他们就已经识别出他们语言的声音，并将它们与意义的基础联系起来。到3个月大时，语言支持婴儿形成物体类别的能力。最初，语言和语言之间的联系 认知的范围相当广泛：人类和非人类灵长类动物的发声都促进了物体类别的形成。到6个月大时，这种联系专门针对人类的发声。目前的提案旨在详细说明婴儿最初联系的范围，并追踪它在第一年的发展情况。这项建议将招募最先进的分析，阐明婴儿在缩小其物种的交流信号并将这些信号与意义的基础联系起来时所采取的发展道路。系列I旨在确定最初促进人类婴儿物体分类的信号范围，以及如何促进婴儿物体分类。 这些在第一年进行调整。这些研究检查了婴儿对人类和非人类灵长类动物、哺乳动物和鸟类发出的声音的反应，以及对手语（ASL）的手动信号的反应。系列II旨在揭示婴儿如何（以及何时）接触语言和环境中的其他信号，从而塑造他们将这些信号与认知联系起来的可能性。这些研究考察了婴儿的可塑性，将确定促进所有婴儿语言和概念发展的关键发展窗口。系列III旨在确定婴儿如何将信号（口语或手势）解释为交流。利用婴儿对社会线索的敏感性（例如，眼睛注视）作为起点，研究考虑婴儿是否理解任何信号（例如，音调序列） 如果它嵌入在丰富的交流中，它就是交流的。人类天生就具有构建复杂、灵活和创造性的语言和思维系统的能力。这一建议在这些制度之间建立了精确的联系，具有深远的理论和实际影响。拟议的项目大大拓宽了目前研究的经验和理论基础，并提供了一个窗口，婴儿的概念和语言发展之间的最早联系的起源和演变。这项工作强调了婴儿的自然禀赋和环境的塑造作用之间的重要相互作用。它还为识别语言延迟或障碍的婴儿奠定了坚实的基础，并为设计有针对性的干预措施以增强他们的语言和认知能力奠定了基础。