Research Project
7879809
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As part of learning a language, children must learn individual words in that language, including verbs. Learning a new verb is difficult because verbs refer to dynamic and transient events, and languages vary in the way their verb categories are constructed. Much of what is known about early verb learning concerns children's production of verbs in everyday environments or their initial learning of a new verb for a single event in the laboratory. However, a central problem in word learning (which has been examined by noun researchers, e.g., Landau, Smith &Jones, 1988;1998) is how to extend new words to new examples or situations. A few studies of children's extension of verbs have been conducted (e.g., Forbes &Farrar, 1995) but many more are needed. One source of information children could use in learning how to extend a verb is the range of situations in which that verb is heard. Although verb researchers assume that children make use of this cross-situational information, no current verb theory fully describes how they do so. The present project uses a theory of structural alignment and comparison (e.g., Gentner, 1983, 1988) as a framework to explain the cognitive processing children use when comparing multiple situations. Our previous studies have shown that 2 1/2-year-old children can make use of information across events during verb learning (Childers, in press), and demonstrate this ability in more than one language group (Childers &Paik, 2009). The present proposal extends these studies by asking how children develop the ability to compare events to each other. Events are difficult to compare because each event includes many elements, and the elements in each event must be understood in relation to one another. Thus processing an individual event in itself is difficult, and processing and comparing two events adds further difficulty. Gentner's theory is useful because it describes how adults link elements from one event with another so that events can be compared. Studies in other areas of development have shown that children who see very similar examples that can be compared benefit from this experience, and show a better ability to compare more complicated or varied examples. Most of the studies in the proposal test whether a similar process explains how young children learn to compare events. These studies include children between the ages of 2 and 4 years, which is a period of rapid verb development. The first series of 2 studies tests whether children who are shown events with similar objects are better able to compare events with varied objects, and show more creativity in the way the extend a new verb, than do children without this experience. One of these studies extends these ideas to children learning Korean in South Korea who are learning a different verb system than are children learning English. Because verb systems vary across language, it is important to conduct cross-linguistic studies in this area. In an additional series of studies, the actions and relations are either similar across events, varied between events, or children are given experience with similar actions and relations before varied ones. As in the initial series, these 3 studies investigate whether experience with similar events helps children learn to compare, and whether this leads to less conservative verb extensions. These studies use a behavioral enactment procedure in which children act directly on objects, which has been used to study early memory, toddlers'attention to intentions, and verb learning. Two new studies are proposed to include a different methodology to address this question, a video task in which children see similar or varied events on a monitor and then can extend the verb by choosing one of two events at test. We also plan to conduct an eye-tracking study that would study children's eye movements as they process events, and which would be conducted with an experienced collaborator. This data about children's eye movements while they visually examine 2 events will reveal useful information not revealed in other studies that focus on children's final decision following events. A second aim in this proposal is to begin to investigate how children use more than one source of information to learn a verb. Verb researchers often have focused solely on linguistic cues or situational cues, however children likely use many different sources of information available in the environment when they can. The final 3 studies test how children integrate information from what the adult is saying with information they glean by comparing events. This final series also includes contrast information, a new source of information to consider. Together these studies will investigate how children use the cross-situational information that would be helpful for acquiring a new verb and extending it to new situations. Understanding verb acquisition in normally developing children is important for designing interventions for children experiencing language delays. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Acquiring language is an important achievement in a child's development. The proposal examines how children use information across situations to learn new verbs. Understanding verb learning is important to understanding normal language development and may have implications for designing interventions for children who are experiencing language delay.
