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Developmental origins and downstream consequences of abstract verbal reference

抽象言语指称的发展起源和下游后果

基本信息

批准号：
10675621
负责人：
Elena Luchkina
金额：
$ 1.14万
依托单位：
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2021-09-01 至 2023-09-30
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

Project Summary/Abstract Language is among our most powerful tools for learning and communication. It permits us to learn information that does not, or cannot, manifest perceptually at the time of learning, such as historical facts, hypothetical scenarios, or scientific constructs. This uniquely human power is enabled by abstract verbal reference–an appreciation that words are linked to mental representations that can be established, retrieved and modified, even when their referents are perceptually unavailable. Despite its utmost significance for human learning and communication, questions concerning the developmental origins (Aim 1) and downstream consequences of attaining abstract verbal reference for broader language-mediated learning (Aim 2) remain. To answer these questions, we will conduct one longitudinal and two cross-sectional eyetracking studies, focusing on infants aged 12-22 months. To conduct cross-sectional studies (Experiments 1 and 2), we will develop a novel experimental procedure that will evaluate infants’ ability to establish word-referent links from language input alone and will test infants across a range of ages. The longitudinal study (Experiment 3) will leverage variation in young infants’ ability to resolve abstract verbal reference and identify its consequences for the ability to learn facts from language input later in development. Answering these questions will help us better understand the developmental origins of this fundamental human learning capacity: extracting novel information from language alone, and creating and updating mental representations based on it. The proposed research will have important theoretical implications for our understanding of early linguistic and communicative development. For example, abstract verbal reference may not only extend the reach of infants’ word learning (e.g., to include learning words from overhearing), but may also scaffold their ability to learn abstract concepts and their names. These advantages may be related to infants’ vocabulary growth in the 2nd year of life (Goldfield & Reznick, 1990). Finally, this research raises new theoretical questions. For example, a) What cues do infants rely on to resolve abstract verbal reference, and b) How does infants’ reliance on these cues vary across languages and/or cultural contexts. The proposed research also has strong methodological impact. The procedure in Experiment 1 offers a novel methodological tool for investigating the development of abstract verbal reference in infancy. The semantic priming procedure can be extended to investigate the breadth of infants’ representations of unseen referents. For example, does priming infants with exemplars of superordinate categories lead to a more abstract representation of the target referent than priming with exemplars of the same basic-level category? In addition, due to the use of continuous eyetracking measures over the course of each trial, infants’ performance in this procedure will provide insight into the speed of infants’ processing of novel words learned in the absence of their referents. The proposed research may also have clinical and pedagogical implications: infants’ ability to infer referents from language input alone is important in itself, but it may also predict their ability to engage in language-mediated learning going forward. If so, the current results will inform interventions for children at risk of language delays and low school readiness, because language-mediated learning is central to formal and much of informal instruction. This work will also lay a foundation for examining potential effects of SES on infants’ success with abstract verbal reference.

项目总结/摘要语言是我们学习和交流最有力的工具之一。它使我们能够了解信息，在学习的时候，没有或不能在感知上表现出来，比如历史事实、假设场景或科学知识。结构。这种人类独有的力量是通过抽象的语言指称实现的--一种对语言与精神联系在一起的欣赏可以建立、检索和修改的表示，即使它们的参照物在感知上不可用。尽管它对人类学习和交流的最大意义，关于发展起源的问题（目标1），下游的后果，获得抽象的口头参考更广泛的语言介导的学习（目标2）仍然存在。为了回答这些问题，我们将进行一项纵向和两项横截面眼动追踪研究，重点是 12-22个月的婴儿。为了进行横断面研究（实验1和2），我们将开发一种新的实验方法，一种评估婴儿仅从语言输入建立词指联系的能力的程序，在不同的年龄段。纵向研究（实验3）将利用幼儿解决抽象问题的能力的变化，言语参照，并确定其后果的能力，学习事实，从语言输入以后的发展。弄清这些问题将有助于我们更好地了解这个基本人类的发展起源。学习能力：仅从语言中提取新的信息，并根据了这项研究对我们理解早期语言学和沟通发展例如，抽象的言语参照不仅可以扩大婴儿单词学习的范围 (e.g.,包括从无意中听到的话中学习单词），但也可以培养他们学习抽象概念及其名称的能力。这些优势可能与婴儿在2岁时的词汇量增长有关（戈德菲尔德& Reznick，1990）。最后研究提出了新的理论问题。例如，a）婴儿依靠什么线索来解决抽象的言语参考， B）婴儿对这些线索的依赖在不同的语言和/或文化背景下有何不同。拟议的研究也有很强的方法论影响。实验1中的程序提供了一种新颖的研究婴儿期抽象言语指称发展的方法学工具。语义启动过程可以扩展到调查婴儿对看不见的参照物的表征的广度。例如，是否启动婴儿与上位范畴样例的启动相比，上位范畴样例的启动会导致对目标所指的更抽象的表征同一个基本类别的样本？此外，由于在整个过程中使用了连续的眼动跟踪措施，每一次试验，婴儿在这个过程中的表现将提供对婴儿处理新单词的速度的洞察力。在没有参照物的情况下学习。这项研究还可能具有临床和教学意义：婴儿的仅从语言输入中推断所指对象的能力本身就很重要，但它也可能预测他们参与语言输入的能力。以语言为媒介的学习方式。如果是这样，目前的结果将为有语言风险的儿童提供干预措施由于以语言为媒介的学习是正式和许多非正式教学的核心，因此，学习时间延迟，入学准备不足。本研究也将为进一步探讨社会经济地位对婴儿抽象言语指称成功的潜在影响奠定基础。