On-line and implicit measurements of language and cognitive processing in children

儿童语言和认知处理的在线和隐式测量

• 批准号: RTI-2016-00479
• 负责人: Fennell, Christopher
• 金额: $ 8.1万
• 依托单位: University of Ottawa
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=591456
• 关键词: line; implicit; measurements; language; cognitive

This proposal addresses fundamental and long-standing questions about the cognitive systems underlying human development in new and innovative ways. These questions include how children acquire language rapidly and effortlessly, how they begin to remember the past and conceive of the future, and how language and cognition interact in early childhood. Investigating these issues requires methods to access the cognitive mechanisms of processing, especially in non-verbal infants, and toddlers with limited language. To date, the vast majority of studies on development focus on explicit, global, and off-line measures of processing (e.g., verbal responses, pointing). These measures are limited because children’s responses are often clouded by cognitive and inhibitory demands. Thus, a major challenge when working with infants and children is to ensure that a study’s methodology is not so cognitively demanding that participants’ underlying knowledge is masked by their inability to complete the task. Because eye gaze is largely below the level of conscious control, eye tracking provides such a methodology. We are requesting eye tracking equipment for conducting research using on-line and implicit measurements of language and cognitive processing in infants and children. This equipment will lead to cutting-edge research that cannot be addressed via traditional, overt behavioural measures, including a project between Fennell and Zamuner that addresses language processing and speech decoding in bilingual infants and children. The requested eye trackers will be used in a brand-new, cutting-edge uOttawa Living Lab at the Canada Science and Technology Museum (CSTM) and will allow us to address this and other important areas of research in a quick and labour-light manner. The partnership between uOttawa’s Living Lab and CSTM is only the second of its kind in Canada and the first in Ontario. At the uOttawa Living Lab visitors are invited to participate with their children on studies about language and cognitive development and to actively contribute to the process of science and discovery. The combination of a Living Lab and unique eyetracking technology will be a first-of-its-kind project in Canada and will allow us to dramatically increase our research output and its impact on the scientific community. The results of our research will also have important benefits for Canada as a whole as it speaks to the impact of bilingualism on early language development.

该提案以新的和创新的方式解决了关于人类发展的认知系统的基本和长期存在的问题。这些问题包括儿童如何快速而轻松地习得语言，他们如何开始记忆过去和设想未来，以及儿童早期语言和认知如何相互作用。研究这些问题需要方法来了解加工的认知机制，特别是在语言有限的非语言婴儿和幼儿中。迄今为止，绝大多数关于发展的研究都集中在明确的、全局的和离线的处理措施上（例如，口头反应、指向）。这些措施是有限的，因为儿童的反应往往被认知和抑制需求所蒙蔽。因此，在研究婴儿和儿童时，一个主要的挑战是确保研究方法对认知的要求不是太高，以至于参与者的潜在知识被他们无法完成任务所掩盖。因为眼睛的注视在很大程度上低于意识控制的水平，眼动追踪提供了这样一种方法。我们需要眼动追踪设备来进行研究，使用在线和隐式测量婴儿和儿童的语言和认知过程。这种设备将带来传统的、公开的行为测量无法解决的前沿研究，包括芬内尔和扎穆纳之间的一个项目，该项目研究双语婴儿和儿童的语言处理和语音解码。所要求的眼动仪将在加拿大科学技术博物馆（CSTM）的一个全新的，尖端的渥太华生活实验室中使用，这将使我们能够以快速和轻松的方式解决这个问题和其他重要的研究领域。渥太华大学生活实验室与CSTM的合作是加拿大第二次，也是安大略省第一次。在渥太华生活实验室，参观者被邀请与他们的孩子一起参与语言和认知发展的研究，并积极地为科学和发现的过程做出贡献。Living Lab和独特的眼球追踪技术的结合将是加拿大首个此类项目，并将使我们能够大大增加我们的研究产出及其对科学界的影响。我们的研究结果也将对整个加拿大有重要的好处，因为它说明了双语对早期语言发展的影响。