Children's Research Initiative: Infant Perception Of Referencing Through Dynamic Gestures During Early Lexical Development

合作建议：婴儿在早期词汇发展中通过动态手势对指称的感知南希·雷德本研究的主要目的是检验一种基于知觉的理论，该理论是建立在早期单词理解基础之上的。这一理论有其社会化实践的基础，照顾者在单词学习的非常早期就与婴儿互动。在确定婴儿最初如何感知一个词与其所指之间的关系时，复杂性是因为这个词是感知到的连续语音流的一部分。此外，所指对象是嵌入复杂、动态环境中的一个元素。婴儿如何才能察觉到语音流的哪一段是一个词，以及这个词的意思呢？为了寻找这个问题的答案，设计了一套四项研究。这些研究测试了这样一种假设，即照顾者在手势和言语中呈现的感知信息类型会吸引注意力，并使单词与其所指之间的对应关系可用并容易检测到。这项研究将考察一系列的语义功能，包括名词(宾语)、动词(宾语动作)和形容词(宾语属性)。样本将由来自英语家庭的婴儿组成，包括最高教育水平为高中文凭的母亲和那些受过大学教育的母亲。这项研究将在伊萨卡学院进行，这是一所主要是本科生的机构；协助该项目的本科生应该欣赏心理学的科学方法，并对攻读研究生课程产生更大的兴趣。虽然这项研究的结果会引起语言发展理论家的兴趣，但它们也应该具有很大的实践意义。了解早期单词学习的过程将有助于教育工作者为语言障碍学习者、发育障碍儿童以及任何学习第二语言的人设计更有效的技巧。

AbstractCollaborative Proposal: Infant Perception of Referencing Through Dynamic Gestures During Early Lexical DevelopmentNancy RaderThe main objective of the proposed research is to test a perceptually-based theory hypothesized to underlie early word comprehension. The theory has its basis in socialization practices used by caregivers in interacting with infants at a very early stage of word learning. In determining how infants initially come to perceive the relation between a word and its referent, complexities arise from the fact that the word is a segment of what perceptually is a continuous stream of speech sounds. Additionally, the referent is one element embedded within a complex, dynamic environment. How could an infant detect which span of the speech stream is a word and what that word means? In searching for an answer to this question, a set of four studies has been designed. These studies test the hypothesis that the types of perceptual information that caregivers present in gesture and speech attract attention and make the correspondence between a word and its referent available and easily detectable. The research will examine a range of semantic functions that includes nouns (objects), verbs (object motions), and adjectives (object attributes). The sample will be comprised of infants from English-speaking families and will include mothers whose highest education level is a high school diploma as well as those with a college education. The research will be carried out at Ithaca College, a primarily undergraduate institution; the undergraduate students assisting with the project should gain an appreciation of a scientific approach to psychology and a greater interest in pursuing graduate studies. While the results of this research will be of interest to theorists of language development, they also should have great practical significance. Understanding the processes underlying early word learning will help educators devise more effective techniques for impaired language learners, for children with developmental disabilities, and for anyone learning a second language.