Attention to Explicit and Implicit Contrast in Verb Learning

Abstract

Contrast information could be useful for verb learning, but few studies have examined children’s ability to use this type of information. Contrast may be useful when children are told explicitly that different verbs apply, or when they hear two different verbs in a single context. Three studies examine children’s attention to different types of contrast as they learn new verbs. Study 1 shows that 3 ½-year-olds can use both implicit contrast (“I’m meeking it. I’m koobing it.”) and explicit contrast (“I’m meeking it. I’m not meeking it.”) when learning a new verb, while a control group’s responses did not differ from chance. Study 2 shows that even though children at this age who hear explicit contrast statements differ from a control group, they do not reliably extend a newly learned verb to events with new objects. In Study 3, children in three age groups were given both comparison and contrast information, not in blocks of trials as in past studies, but in a procedure that interleaved both cues. Results show that while 2 ½-year-olds were unable to use these cues when asked to compare and contrast, by 3 ½, children are beginning to be able to process these cues and use them to influence their verb extensions, and by 4 ½ years, children are proficient at integrating multiple cues when learning and extending new verbs. Together these studies examine children’s use of contrast in verb learning, a potentially important source of information that has been rarely studied.

Finding meaning in a noisy world: exploring the effects of referential ambiguity and competition on 2·5-year-olds’ cross-situational word learning

“…Contrast information has been shown to facilitate children's word learning and extension in a variety of tasks (e.g. Ankowski, Vlach & Sandhofer, 2013; Childers, Hirshkowitz & Benavides, 2014; Namy & Clepper, 2010; Waxman & Klibanoff, 2000). In prior cross-situational learning studies, implicit contrast could have encouraged children to form one-to-one mappings between words and objects.…”

“…First, labeling both referents provides implicit contrast information: if a child sees two objects and hears bosa and manu, this implies that one of these objects is a bosa while the other is not a bosa. Contrast information has been shown to facilitate children's word learning and extension in a variety of tasks (e.g., Ankowski, Vlach, & Sandhofer, 2013;Childers, Hirshkowitz, & Benavides, 2014;Namy & Clepper, 2010;Waxman & Klibanoff, 2000). In prior cross-situational learning studies, implicit contrast could have encouraged children to form one-to-one mappings between words and objects.…”

Does children’s visual attention to specific objects affect their verb learning?

“…Specifically, there are studies that show that variation across events can help children learn verbs (e.g., Childers, 2011; Childers, Heard, Ring, Pai, & Sallquist, 2012; Childers & Paik, 2009). For example, in one study, 2½-year-olds shown varied events performed as well as a set of children who received direct instruction on a new verb’s meaning (Childers, Hirshkowitz, & Benavides, 2014). Additionally, a study by Waxman, Lidz, Braun, and Levin (2009) shows that 2-year-olds who saw four comparison events and a contrast phase before test learned verbs, but it is unclear whether the comparison trials, the contrast trial, or both contributed to their performance at test.…”

Conducting Publishable Research From Special Populations: Studying Children and Non-human Primates With Undergraduate Research Assistants

“…Multiple drafts are submitted for revision in stages. These thesis papers have been great starts to papers that can later be submitted for publication with student(s) as a co-author (Childers et al, 2012, 2014, 2016; Phillips et al, 2018;Phillips et al, 2019).…”