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

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Collaborative Proposal: Infant Perception of Referencing through Dynamic Gestures During Early Lexical Development Patricia Zukow-Goldring, University of Southern California The main objective of this proposal is to test hypotheses from a perceptually-based theory to determine how infants initially learn to understand what words mean. Underlying this approach is careful, longitudinal observation of both English- and Spanish-speaking caregiver practices in ecologically valid environments, an often unacknowledged but indispensable step in determining hypotheses worthy of testing. These caregivers pattern what they say and do to mark the correspondence between words and what they represent as they interact with their infants during very early stages of word learning. The goal of this investigation is to pinpoint the relation between this perceptual information and the infants' emergent abilities crucial to early word learning through a set of experimental studies. These studies will test the hypothesis that the types of perceptual structure or information that caregivers present in gesture and speech attract attention by making the link between a word and its referent perceptually accessible and easy to notice. This research will examine a set of semantic functions typical of infants' earliest word learning that includes nouns (objects), verbs (object motions), and adjectives (object attributes). The sample of Spanish-speaking families will be comprised of infants whose mothers have received a high school diploma or a college education. Such a sample will extend the generality of this theory beyond the usual English-speaking, middle-class population. Students assisting with the project should gain an appreciation of a scientific approach to psychology and a greater interest in pursuing graduate studies. For the Latino student-assistants, this proposal offers the additional opportunity to contribute their cultural knowledge and native language expertise to the realization of this research. Findings from this research would have important implications for theories of language development as well as great potential for practitioners. A better understanding of how children learn that words refer to aspects of ongoing events can serve as a basis for refining teaching methods and enhancing student comprehension in early educational settings. Not only first and second-language learners might benefit, but language-delayed and perceptually impaired children as well.