Developmental origins and downstream consequences of abstract verbal reference

项目摘要/摘要 语言是我们学习和交流的最强大的工具之一。它使我们能够了解到 在学习时不能或不能在感知上表现出来，如历史事实、假设情景或科学 构造。这种独特的人类力量是由抽象的言语指称实现的--一种认识到文字与心理联系在一起 可以建立、检索和修改的表示，即使在它们的参照物不可用的情况下也是如此。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)和 为更广泛的语言中介学习获得抽象的言语参照(目标2)的下游后果仍然存在。 为了回答这些问题，我们将进行一项纵向和两项横向眼动研究，重点是 12-22个月大的婴儿。为了进行横断面研究(实验1和实验2)，我们将开发一个新的实验 该程序将评估婴儿仅通过语言输入建立单词指代链接的能力，并将测试婴儿 不同年龄段的人。纵向研究(实验3)将利用幼儿解决抽象问题的能力的差异。 口头指涉，并确定其后果对从语言输入中学习事实的能力，在以后的发展。 回答这些问题将有助于我们更好地理解这一基本人类的发育起源 学习能力：仅从语言中提取新的信息，并基于以下因素创建和更新心理表征 它。所提出的研究将对我们理解早期语言和语言具有重要的理论意义 交往发展。例如，抽象的动词性指称不仅可以扩大婴儿的单词学习范围 (例如，包括从无意中学习单词)，但也可能支撑他们学习抽象概念及其名称的能力。 这些优势可能与婴儿第二年的词汇量增长有关(Goldfield&Reznick，1990)。最后，这一点 研究提出了新的理论问题。例如，a)婴儿依赖什么线索来解决抽象的言语指称，以及 B)婴儿对这些线索的依赖在不同语言和/或文化背景下有何不同。 拟议的研究也具有很强的方法论影响。实验1中的程序提供了一种新的 研究婴幼儿抽象言语指称发展的方法论工具。语义启动程序 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，给婴儿打底 使用上级类别的样本导致对目标所指对象的更抽象的表征，而不是使用 同一个基本级类别的样本？此外，由于在整个过程中使用了连续的眼球跟踪措施 每一次试验中，婴儿在这一过程中的表现将提供对婴儿处理新词的速度的洞察 在没有他们的指代者的情况下学习。这项拟议的研究也可能具有临床和教学意义：婴儿的 从语言输入中推断对象的能力本身很重要，但它也可以预测他们参与的能力 未来以语言为媒介的学习。如果是这样的话，目前的结果将为有语言风险的儿童提供干预 延误和上学准备不足，因为以语言为媒介的学习是正式和大部分非正式教学的核心。 这项工作也将为用抽象的言语指称检验SES对婴儿成功的潜在影响奠定基础。

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.