Infant Word-Learning in English and Chinese

描述(申请人提供)：这项拟议的研究考察了美国和中国的婴儿早期单词学习，重点是宾语名词和动作动词的学习。我们的目标不仅仅是探索不同的文化和个人环境对单词学习的影响，而是探索单词学习的哪些方面是普遍的，尽管有文化和个人的差异，以及单词学习的哪些方面可能在语言和文化上是特定的，尽管普遍的习得过程。这项R03建议探索了说英语和普通话的幼儿在产出性词汇习得中的对象和动作词汇习得的差异，并利用一系列实验研究来调查这种差异是否也适用于在严格控制的实验中对熟悉和新词的理解，或者这种差异是否更好地被描述为产生和理解之间的差异，或者仅仅是词汇的替代测量。在这些实验中，将使用受试者内部比较和多种方法(即词汇检查表、总注视次数和注视的动态变化)来评估单词学习，从而允许对儿童、单词类型和语言之间的潜在差异具有最大的敏感性。该计划的结果将为现有的词汇学习模式提供参考，并提出新的建议，更全面地考虑词汇学习过程中的跨语言和发展因素。我们不仅将提供讲普通话的儿童在实验范式中的表现数据，在这些实验范式中，说英语的儿童通常表现出对象优于动作标签的优势，而且我们还将通过考虑语言和概念因素(例如，物体的形状、动作的身体部位，以及对象-动作配对的跨情景一致性)在文化内部和跨文化发展的多个点上的作用，对早期单词学习如何进行的概念化进行重要的修改。随着普通话和其他语言作为少数族裔语言在美国变得越来越普遍，这些发现对公共卫生的影响非常重要。目前的语言习得和干预模式不能继续满足我们人口的需求，除非它们能够考虑到习得中的跨语言数据。此外，这个项目中的PI是第一次成为NIH的调查员。我们的团队包括与海外研究实验室合作的代表不足的少数族裔调查人员。最后，我们将为学生和调查人员提供多种技术和人群的培训，并在项目的几个方面纳入公共教育内容。该项目的培训影响广泛，将包括妇女、少数群体以及所有阶段的国际学生和工作人员。 公共卫生相关性：口语是认知发展和入学准备的关键。这项拟议的研究调查了美国和中国的婴幼儿如何学习单词--它评估了对于学习不同语言的儿童来说，哪些类型的单词最容易学习。深入了解多数语言和少数语言的单词学习，对于提高我们满足我国儿童和家庭日益增长的语言干预需求的能力至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research examines infants' early word learning in the US and China with a focus on the learning of object nouns and action verbs. The goal is not simply to explore the impact of diverse cultural and individual environments on word learning but to explore which aspects of word learning are universal, despite cultural and individual differences, and which aspects of word learning may be linguistically and culturally specific, despite universal acquisition processes. This R03 proposal explores a discrepancy in the acquisition of object vs. action terms in the productive vocabularies of young English- and Mandarin-speaking children and utilizes a series of experimental studies to investigate whether this discrepancy also holds for comprehension of familiar and novel words in rigorously controlled experiments, or whether the discrepancy is better described as one between production and comprehension, or simply alternative measures of vocabulary. Within-subject comparisons and multiple methods (i.e., vocabulary checklists, total looking times, and dynamic changes in looking) will be used for assessing word learning in these experiments, thus allowing for maximal sensitivity to potential differences across children, word types, and languages. The results of the proposed program will inform existing models of word-learning as well as advance new proposals that more fully account for cross- linguistic and developmental factors in word-learning processes. We will not only provide data on how Mandarin-speaking children perform in experimental paradigms in which English-speaking children typically show advantages for object over action labels, but also provide important modifications to the conceptualization of how early word learning proceeds by considering the role of both linguistic and conceptual factors (e.g., shape for objects, body part for actions, and cross-situational consistency of object-action pairings) at multiple points in development both within and across cultures. The public health implications of these findings are important, as Mandarin and other languages become more and more common as minority languages in the United States. Current models of language acquisition and intervention cannot continue to address the needs of our population unless they can account for cross-linguistic data in acquisition. In addition, the PI in this project is a first-time NIH investigator. Our team includes under-represented minority investigators in collaboration with overseas research labs. Finally, we will provide training to students and investigators for multiple techniques and populations and include public education components in several aspects of the project. The training implications of this project are extensive and will include women, minorities, and international students and staff in all phases. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Spoken language is the key to cognitive development and school readiness. The proposed research examines how infants and toddlers in the US and China learn words - it assesses which types of words are easiest to learn for children learning different languages. A deep understanding of word-learning in both majority and minority languages is crucial for furthering our abilities to address the growing language intervention needs of children and families in our country.