The interface between spatial cognition and language

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目探讨儿童空间事件的认知表征和语言表征之间的关系。认知和语言发展的经典理论假设空间概念在很大程度上是普遍的，空间语言（例如空间位置、路径和运动的表达）直接映射到预先存在的共享空间类别。最近的一些理论指出，空间编码存在广泛的跨语言差异，表明空间认知的重要方面可能不是普遍存在的，而是通过接触特定语言中空间关系的编码方式而形成的。该项目的目标是研究不同语言人群空间词汇的加工和习得过程，从而将空间语言的特定语言成分与独立语言成分（可能是通用的）分离开来。该计划将跨语言行为实验与眼动追踪方法相结合，使我们能够在受控实验环境中检查空间描述集合背后的每时每刻过程，以及支持获取新空间术语的过程。这是第一次使用这种收敛方法的组合来研究语言和非语言表征如何在年轻和更有经验的跨语言说话者的头脑中结合在一起。这种综合方法认为，从空间事件感知到语言的映射是一个动态过程，一个在多个时间尺度上展开的过程，从毫秒（如计划和理解话语）到几年（如发展说母语的能力）。这个基础研究项目将为正常语言发展和处理的理论提供信息，并可能最终为双语人群和有特殊语言障碍的儿童的语言和概念发展做出贡献。为这个项目开发的眼动追踪技术可以对语言和认知发育不典型的儿童进行干预，并在某种程度上作为不同类型的脑损伤或失语症患者的认知和语言困难的诊断。我们的工具箱也可以用于双语研究（例如，通过调查语言和心理表征之间的联系）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project examines the relationship between cognitive and linguistic representations of spatial events in children. Classic theories of cognitive and linguistic development assume that spatial concepts are largely universal and that spatial language (e.g. the expression of spatial locations, paths and motions) maps directly onto preexisting, shared spatial categories. More recent theories, pointing to wide cross-linguistic differences in spatial encoding, suggest that important aspects of spatial cognition may not be universal but may be shaped by exposure to the way spatial relations are encoded within a specific language. The goal of this project is to investigate the processes underlying both the processing and the acquisition of spatial vocabulary in populations speaking different languages so as to disentangle language-specific from language- independent (potentially universal) components of spatial language. The proposed plan combines cross-linguistic behavioral experiments with eye tracking methods, allowing us to examine the moment-by-moment processes underlying the assembly of spatial descriptions, as well as the processes supporting the acquisition of novel spatial terms in controlled experimental settings. This is the first time this combination of convergent methods has been used to study how linguistic and nonlinguistic representations come together in the minds of young and more experienced speakers cross-linguistically. This integrated approach views the mapping from spatial event perception to language as a dynamic process, one that unfolds along multiple time scales ranging from milliseconds (as in planning and understanding utterances) to years (as in developing the ability to speak one's native language). This basic research program will inform theories of normal language development and processing and may ultimately contribute to accounts of linguistic and conceptual development in bilingual populations and children with specific language impairments. The eye tracking techniques developed for this project can lead to interventions for children with atypical linguistic and cognitive development, and in some form serve as a diagnostic of cognitive and linguistic difficulties in patients with different types of brain lesions or aphasias. Our toolbox could also be used to inform studies of bilingualism (e.g., by investigating connections between language and mental representation).