Class matters: 12‐month‐olds’ word–object associations privilege content over function words

MacKenzie, Heather; Curtin, Suzanne; Graham, Susan A.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01166.x

Cited by 49 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Importantly, the word form itself was kept constant, by selecting a target word form that was phonetically and phonotactically legal in both the native and foreign languages, and counterbalancing and cross‐splicing the same token into sentences from both languages. We tested 14‐month‐olds because, at this age, infants can reliably learn novel words in a laboratory setting (Byers‐Heinlein et al., ; MacKenzie et al., ,b; Schafer & Plunkett, ; Werker et al., ). Infants were trained on two novel word–object pairings, one in native sentence frames and one in foreign sentence frames.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Foreign word learning likely draws on many of the same capacities that support native word learning, and infants are remarkable word learners. Laboratory studies have shown that 12‐ to 14‐month‐old infants can rapidly form word–object associations (MacKenzie, Curtin, & Graham, ,b; Werker, Cohen, Lloyd, Casasola, & Stager, ). That is, even before infants can reliably produce words (Nazzi & Bertoncini, ), they are able to associate a label with its referent.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Vois‐Tu Le Kem? Do You See the Bos? Foreign Word Learning at 14 Months

Estrela¹,

Byers‐Heinlein²

2015

Infancy

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How easily can infants regularly exposed to only one language begin to acquire a second one?In three experiments, we tested 14-month-old English and French monolingual infants' ability to learn words presented in foreign language sentence frames. Infants were trained on two novel word-object pairings and then tested using a preferential looking task. Word forms were phonetically and phonotactically legal in both languages, and cross-spliced across conditions, so only the sentence frames established the word as native or foreign. In Experiment 1, infants were taught one native and one foreign word and successfully learned both. In Experiment 2 and 3, infants were taught two foreign words, but only showed successful learning of the first word they encountered. These results demonstrate that infants can successfully learn words embedded in foreign language sentences, but this is more challenging than native word learning. More broadly, they show that the sentential context of a novel word, and not just the word form itself, influences infants' early word learning.As the world becomes increasingly multilingual, investigations into how individuals come to acquire new languages are of interest to both researchers and the public at large. While some individuals acquire a second language in middle childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, many children are exposed to a new language in daycare and other early childhood education settings. In large North American cities, upwards of 27% of children in daycare will be exposed to a language other than the one they are hearing at home (Chumak-Horbatsch, 2010). But how do infants initially exposed to only one language begin to acquire a second one? Specifically, how easily can infants learn foreign language words?Foreign word learning likely draws on many of the same capacities that support native word learning, and infants are remarkable word learners. Laboratory studies have shown that 12-to 14-month-old infants can rapidly form word-object associations

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vois‐Tu Le Kem? Do You See the Bos? Foreign Word Learning at 14 Months

Estrela¹,

Byers‐Heinlein²

2015

Infancy

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“…It is well documented that infants' relatively open language learning systems become increasingly specified over the first two years of life (see Curtin & Zamuner, 2014, for a review). By 12 months of age, infants hold expectations about what constitutes an appropriate word form for an object label in their native language (Graf Estes, Edwards & Saffran, 2011; Hochmann, Endress & Mehler, 2010; MacKenzie, Curtin & Graham, 2012a, 2012b). For example, English-learning 12- and 18-month-olds are sensitive to the allowable sound sequences of English, and will learn words that conform to these legal sound patterns (Graf Estes et al , 2011; MacKenzie et al , 2012b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ooh ), or single consonantal sounds (e.g. /l/) to objects (MacKenzie et al ., 2012a; MacKenzie, Graham & Curtin, 2011; MacKenzie et al ., 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants' acceptance of phonotactically illegal word forms as object labels

2015

Self Cite

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We investigated 16- and 20-month-olds' flexibility in mapping phonotactically illegal words to objects. Using an associative word-learning task, infants were presented with a training phase that either highlighted or did not highlight the referential status of a novel label. Infants were then habituated to two novel objects, each paired with a phonotactically illegal Czech word. When referential cues were provided, 16-, but not 20-month-olds, formed word-object mappings. In the absence of referential cues, infants of both ages failed to map the novel words. These findings illustrate the complex interplay between infants' developing sound system and their word learning abilities.

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“…For example, hearing consistent labels allows monolingual infants as young as 3 months to form object categories (Balaban & Waxman, ; Ferry, Hespos & Waxman, ; Fulkerson & Waxman, ; Waxman & Braun, ). Further, in laboratory word learning tasks, 1‐year‐old monolinguals privilege word forms and sound combinations characteristic of their native language (Mackenzie, Curtin & Graham, , ; May & Werker, ). Other work with monolingual infants has revealed expectations that emerge over the second and third years of life that words are better labels for objects than gestures (Namy, ; Namy & Waxman, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bilingualism affects 9‐month‐old infants’ expectations about how words refer to kinds

Byers‐Heinlein

2016

Developmental Science

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Infants are precocious word learners, and seem to possess systematic expectations about how words refer to object kinds. For example, while monolingual infants show a one-to-one mapping bias (e.g. mutual exclusivity), expecting each object to have only one basic level label, previous research has shown that this is less robust in bi- and multilinguals aged 1.5 years and older. This study examined the early origins of such one-to-one mapping biases by comparing monolingual and bilingual 9-10-month-olds' expectations about the relationship between labels and object kinds. In a violation of expectation paradigm, infants heard a speaker name hidden objects with either one label ('I see a mouba! I see a mouba!') or two labels ('I see a camo! I see a tenda!'). An occluder moved to reveal two objects that were either identical or of different kinds. Monolingual infants looked longest when two labels were associated with identical objects, and when one label was associated with objects of different kinds, showing that they found these outcomes unexpected. This replicated previous findings showing that monolinguals expect that distinct words label distinct object kinds (Dewar & Xu, ). Bilinguals looked equally to the outcomes regardless of the number of labels, showing no such expectations. This finding indicates that bilingualism influences young infants' expectations about how words refer to kinds, and more broadly supports the position that language experience contributes to the development of word learning heuristics.

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Class matters: 12‐month‐olds’ word–object associations privilege content over function words

Cited by 49 publications

References 24 publications

Vois‐Tu Le Kem? Do You See the Bos? Foreign Word Learning at 14 Months

Vois‐Tu Le Kem? Do You See the Bos? Foreign Word Learning at 14 Months

Infants' acceptance of phonotactically illegal word forms as object labels

Bilingualism affects 9‐month‐old infants’ expectations about how words refer to kinds

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