The Development of Word Meaning

描述(申请人提供)：单词学习是一个渐进的过程，由单词学习者的能力和单词学习环境提供的线索决定。我们的长期目标是阐明学龄儿童在现有单词知识和单词学习方面的个体差异。拟议的设计利用了种群之间自然发生的变异。我们的方法包括在一组儿童中进行比较，将完整的社交和语言处理应用于单词学习；比较年龄较小的儿童和年龄较大的儿童，这些儿童在社会和语言处理方面的成熟程度不同；比较正常儿童与语言处理能力较差的儿童(有特定语言障碍的儿童)或社交推理能力较差的儿童(自闭症儿童)之间的差异。这些比较可以检验两个主要假设：1)单词学习的渐进或“慢映射”阶段取决于处理语言和社会线索的组合的能力；2)在任何给定的时间点，词典中建立的语义知识的健壮性将影响单词使用的成功。具体目标是确定： 1)现有的词汇知识如何随着发展、临床状态和词类的变化而变化；2)词汇的接受性和表现力如何随着发展、临床状态和词类的变化而变化；3)慢映射的过程和结果如何随着发展、临床状态和词类的变化而变化；以及4)词汇语义知识的稳健性与词汇使用的速度或准确性之间是否存在因果关系。 这个项目将导致在一个很少研究的阶段--缓慢的映射阶段--关于单词学习的发现。它还将揭示与SLI和自闭症相关的词汇缺陷的来源，这两种缺陷分别影响了7%和0.3%的美国人口。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Word learning is a gradual process determined by the competencies of the word learner and cues provided by the word learning environment. Our long-term goal is to elucidate individual differences in both extant word knowledge and word learning among school-aged children. The proposed design takes advantage of naturally-occurring variation between populations. Our method involves comparisons within a group of children bringing intact social and linguistic processing to bear on word learning; between younger and older children with differing levels of maturity in social and linguistic processing; and between normal children and those with poor linguistic processing (children with specific language impairment) or poor social reasoning (children with autism). These comparisons allow tests of two main hypotheses: 1) the gradual or "slow-mapping" phase of word learning depends upon abilities to process a coalition of linguistic and social cues and 2) at any given point in time, the robustness of semantic knowledge established in the lexicon will affect the success of word usage. The specific aims are to determine: 1) how extant word knowledge varies with development, clinical status, and word class; 2) how receptive and expressive word usage vary with development, clinical status, and word class; 3) how the process and outcomes of slow mapping vary with development, clinical status, and word class; and 4) whether there is a causal relation between robustness of lexical semantic knowledge and speed or accuracy of word usage. This project will lead to discoveries about word learning during a rarely studied stage, slow mapping. It will also reveal sources of lexical deficits associated with SLI and autism, impairments affecting 7% and .3% of the U.S. population, respectively.