The role of statistical learning in predicting child language outcomes.

项目概要 语言能力发展的一个关键组成部分是从现有规律中学习的能力 在环境中。这种基本的认知过程能够发现单词和语法关系 存在于语音中，并且还能够识别书面文本中的这些结构。 虽然之前的研究已经建立了统计学习与学习能力之间的关键联系 从分布模式和识字儿童的语言技能来看，很少有研究探讨其贡献 语言的结果，识字前的儿童，以及这种联系如何随着 阅读发展。拟议研究的目标是更好地了解统计学习如何影响 识字的两个基本前提：口语单词识别和字母识别，以及它们的 对词汇和句法发展的贡献。 通过三组实验，拟议的研究将采用横截面、个体差异 研究语言发展的方法我们的具体目标是：1）跟踪听觉和听觉的发展 学前阅读者（4-6岁儿童）和早期读者（6-8岁儿童）的视觉统计学习，以及 2）建立不同方式统计学习中个体差异对在线学习的贡献 语言处理和母语能力的发展。我们将部署一组认知能力 任务以全面了解统计学习对新兴语言技能的影响。在 此外，我们将利用眼动追踪（该资助的主要培训目标之一）来开发新颖的任务，这些任务可以 可用于跨年龄组来探究阅读前兆，以及它们如何影响一般语言结果。

Project Summary A key component in the development of linguistic proficiency is the capacity to learn from the regularities present in the environment. This basic cognitive process enables the discovery of the words and grammatical relations present in speech, and also enables the identification of these structures in written text. While previous research has established key connections between statistical learning – the ability to learn from distributional patterns – and language skills in literate children, fewer studies have explored its contribution to language outcomes in speaking, pre-literate children, and how this connection changes as a function of reading development. The goal of the proposed research is to better understand how statistical learning impacts two fundamental precursors to literacy: spoken word recognition and letter identification, as well as their contribution to vocabulary and syntactic development. Over three sets of experiments, the proposed research will employ a cross-sectional, individual differences approach to studying linguistic development. Our specific aims are to: 1) track the development of auditory and visual statistical learning in pre-readers (children 4–6 years old) and early readers (children 6–8 years old), and 2) establish the contribution of individual differences in statistical learning in different modalities to online language processing and the development of native language proficiency. We will deploy a battery of cognitive tasks to gain a thorough understanding of the impact of statistical learning on burgeoning language skills. In addition, we will leverage eye-tracking (one of the grant’s main training goals) to develop novel tasks that can be used across-age groups to probe reading precursors, and how they inform general language outcomes.