Touch to learn: How sensory cues impact word segmentation and learning

婴儿在一个丰富的多模式世界中体验语言，在这个世界中，声音、视觉、气味、味道 而触觉是同时发生的。这些形式以及它们在输入中的存在如何起到作用 词汇习得的基本方面？我们探索婴儿如何利用多重比较 具有单峰输入，因为它们从连续语音中切分单词形式并将含义映射到 文字形式。我们假设，利用包括触摸在内的多模式信息的能力 (一个基本的社会信号)在输入中通过贡献帮助促进婴儿的语言学习 与词边界对齐和词义关联相关的信息 文字形式。在目标1(实验1a-c)中，我们确定 更多的模式与语音输入一致，从而改进了语音分割和 改善了幼儿学习者对单词边缘的关注。在目标2(实验2a和2b)中，我们 确定合并了与对象相关联的更多通道的感觉输入 结果改善了单词学习。建议的研究对其临床和治疗具有重要意义。 理论上的含义。首先，由于探索多通道线索的作用，它具有临床意义。 语言学习可能会影响临床方法，因为目前的语言疗法或 关于输入的干预倾向于强调单独的听觉或听觉+视觉领域， 但不是触觉上的。因此，关于儿童使用多模式信息的发现 将触摸纳入语言学习可能会为婴儿的早期干预带来新的途径 以及表现出语言习得延迟或有语言障碍风险的幼儿。 其次，这项工作具有重要的理论意义，因为它探索了多模式信息如何 帮助学习者在不同的表示级别(单词形式表示、语义表示 陈述)，以可能限制语言学习问题的方式。 这项补充提供了一个机会，以扩大赠款的范围和增加 研究人员队伍的多样性在三个关键方面：第一，它将提供大量的 对来自社区的个人进行全面培训，这些人将继续 在言语、语言、听力科学和心理学领域的代表性不足。 其次，它将培训学员如何指导更多的低年级学生 也在这些领域任职人数不足，以便为任职人数不足的学生提供一个渠道 在与健康相关的领域。第三，它将为学员提供专业的机会 发展、研究技能发展和与资深教职员工建立网络的机会 来自历史上代表性不足的群体，投资于卫生公平。

Infants experience language in a rich multimodal world in which sounds, sights, smells, tastes, and touches occur together. How do these modalities, and their presence in the input, contribute to fundamental aspects of lexical acquisition? We explore how infants exploit multi- compared with unimodal input as they segment wordforms from continuous speech and map meanings to wordforms. We hypothesize that the ability to make use of multimodal information including touch (a fundamental social signal) in the input facilitates infants' language learning by contributing information relevant to the alignment of word boundaries and the association of word meaning to wordforms. In Aim 1 (Experiments 1a-c) we determine whether sensory input that incorporates more modalities aligned with speech input, results in improved segmentation of the speech and improved attention to word edges for infant learners. In Aim 2 (Experiments 2a and 2b) we determine whether sensory input that incorporates more modalities associated with objects results in improved word learning. The proposed research is significant for its clinical and theoretical implications. First, it is clinically significant since exploring the role of multimodal cues on language learning may impact clinical approaches since current language therapies or interventions concerning the input tend to emphasize auditory alone or auditory+visual domains, but not tactile ones. Thus, discoveries concerning the child's use of multimodal information which includes touch in language learning could lead to new avenues for early intervention for infants and toddlers showing delayed language acquisition or who are at-risk of language disorders. Second, this work is theoretically significant since it explores how multimodal information may help the learner at different levels of representation (wordform representations, semantic representations) in ways that could constrain the language learning problem. This supplement provides an opportunity to expand the scope of the grant and increase diversity in the research workforce in three key ways: First, it will provide substantial comprehensive training to an individual who comes from a community of people who continue to be underrepresented in the fields of speech, language, and hearing sciences and psychology. Second, it will train the trainee on ways in which she can mentor more junior students who are also underrepresented in these fields in order to facilitate a pipeline for underrepresented students in health-related fields. Third, it will provide the trainee with opportunities for professional development, research skill development, and opportunities to network with senior faculty who come from historically underrepresented groups and are invested in health equity.