Technological timescales: Identifying the impact of digital media on the mechanisms of word learning

在孩子生命的头两年，他们学习新单词的能力越来越强，词汇量呈指数级增长。我们还知道，儿童学习一个新单词的环境会影响该单词在他们的词典中的整合，并随着时间的推移对语言的发展产生连锁效应。然而，在过去的十年里，作为语言输入来源的数字媒体的兴起，标志着儿童接触和学习单词的环境发生了变化--从丰富的、三维的、互动的对象转向不那么丰富、更少体现、更短暂的时刻。然而，关于儿童如何映射、保留和概括数字形式的单词，或者数字媒体对词汇增长的连锁影响，人们知之甚少。目前这项提议的目标是确定数字媒体如何改变单词学习的机制，并随后影响儿童建立词汇的词汇基础。具体地说，该提案旨在确定数字媒体对1)实时单词学习过程的影响，以及2)语言泛化和词汇增长过程的影响。具体目标1将使用一项新颖的单词学习任务来测试儿童在数字媒体(平板电脑上的2D图像)和现实世界对象(3D对象)内部和之间映射和记忆新单词的能力。具体目标2将使用一项新的名词概括任务来探索儿童在2D和3D通道内以及之间的新标签概括能力。此外，儿童先前技术经验中的个体差异将被测量并用于预测总体词汇量以及在每项任务中和之间的表现。这些结果将通过a)确定从数字媒体学习单词的过程是否与通过真实对象学习单词的过程在本质上不同，以及b)量化数字语境如何改变词汇发展支持词汇增长的级联，从而促进我们对语言发展的理解。此外，这些发现将对预测长期的语言结果并为教育工作者、临床医生和父母形成具体的建议(或警告)，说明在这些关键年份，幼儿接触科技产品何时以及如何影响单词学习。

The first two years of a child’s life are marked by an increasing ability to learn new words and an exponential growth in their vocabulary. We also know that the context in which a child learns a new word affects the integration of that word into their lexicon and has cascading effects on language growth over time. However, the last decade has seen a rise in digital media as a source of language input, marking a shift in the contexts in which children encounter and learn words – from rich, three-dimensional, and interactive objects to moments that are less rich, less embodied, and more transient. Little, however, is known about how children map, retain, and generalize words in digital forms or the cascading impact digital media has on vocabulary growth. The goal of the current proposal is to identify how digital media alters the mechanisms of word learning and subsequently impacts the lexical foundation on which a child’s vocabulary is built. Specifically, the proposal aims to identify the impact of digital media on 1) the processes underlying real-time word learning, and 2) the processes of language generalization and vocabulary growth. Specific Aim 1 will use a novel word learning task to test children’s ability to map and retain new words within and between digital media (2D images on a tablet) and real world objects (3D objects). Specific Aim 2 will probe children’s novel label generalization abilities within and between 2D and 3D modalities using a novel noun generalization task. Further, individual differences in a child’s prior technology experience will be measured and used to predict overall vocabulary as well as performance within and between each task. The results will advance our understanding of language development by a) establishing whether the process of word learning from digital media qualitatively differs from learning with real objects, and b) quantifying how digital contexts alter the cascade by which lexical development supports vocabulary growth. Further, the findings will have implications for predicting long-term language outcomes and forming specific recommendations (or warnings) for educators, clinicians, and parents on when and how young children’s technology exposure impacts word learning during these critical years.