Effects of causal information on the early word learning: Efficiency and longevity

Booth, Amy E.

doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2014.05.001

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…It will also be interesting to specify, in future work, whether children's preferences for causally rich books translates into superior learning. Causal explanations have already been shown to support the acquisition of knowledge in other settings (e.g., Gopnik and Sobel, 2000;Booth, 2015;Bauer et al, 2016). For instance, in one study, preschoolers recalled more novel labels for unfamiliar objects or animals after a delay when they were accompanied by causal descriptions than when they were accompanied by non-causal descriptions (Booth, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Children’s Preference for Causal Information in Storybooks

2020

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Fostering early literacy depends in part on engaging and inspiring children's early interest in reading. Enriching the causal content of children's books may be one way to do so, as causal information has been empirically shown to capture children's attention. To more directly test whether children's book preferences might be driven by causal content, we created pairs of expository books closely matched for content and complexity, but with differing amounts of causal information embedded therein. Three and 4 years old participants (n = 48) were read both books and their interests and preferences were evaluated. When asked to choose, children preferred the highly causal over the minimally causal books. Results are discussed in terms of broader implications for creating books that optimally engage young children, as well as guiding book selections parents and educators make in their endeavors to promote interest in reading and early literacy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Children’s Preference for Causal Information in Storybooks

2020

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“…Because we were interested in why causal information might facilitate learning, we focused on 3-year-olds, an age at which this facilitative effect has been robustly observed (e.g., Kemler Nelson et al, 2008 ; Booth, 2009 , 2014 ). Twenty participants (13 females) were recruited from either a database of Chicago area families or a middle income preschool.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Importantly, this sensitivity appears to support early categorization, word learning, and memory more generally speaking (e.g., Bauer and Mandler, 1989 ; Booth and Waxman, 2002 ; Booth, 2008 , 2009 ). For example, 3-year-olds are more likely to remember novel labels if their novel animal or artifact referents are described in terms of their causal properties than if they are described in terms of their causally-irrelevant properties ( Booth, 2009 , 2014 ; also see Kemler Nelson et al, 2008 ). But why does causal information have this facilitative effect on learning?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preschoolers prefer to learn causal information

Alvarez

Booth

2015

Front. Psychol.

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Young children, in general, appear to have a strong drive to explore the environment in ways that reveal its underlying causal structure. But are they really attuned specifically to casual information in this quest for understanding, or do they show equal interest in other types of non-obvious information about the world? To answer this question, we introduced 20 three-year-old children to two puppets who were anxious to tell the child about a set of novel artifacts and animals. One puppet consistently described causal properties of the items while the other puppet consistently described carefully matched non-causal properties of the same items. After a familiarization period in which children learned which type of information to expect from each informant, children were given the opportunity to choose which they wanted to hear describe each of eight pictured test items. On average, children chose to hear from the informant that provided causal descriptions on 72% of the trials. This preference for causal information has important implications for explaining the role of conceptual information in supporting early learning and may suggest means for maximizing interest and motivation in young children.

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“…Indeed, children require fewer training trials to encode causal descriptions of novel items, as well as labels for those items, than they require for non-causal descriptions and associated labels (Booth, 2015). Thus, demonstrating the causal powers of labeled objects might facilitate learning by heightening children’s attention during training.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because recent evidence suggests that causal information likely facilitates word learning by enhancing attention to, and therefore encoding of, the target material during training (Alvarez and Booth, 2014; Booth, 2015), the natural distractions that permeate a play-based learning environment might well diminish its influence. On the other hand, other potential mechanisms that affect the consolidation and retention of the target material, rather than the efficiency of its initial encoding, might be less disrupted by these circumstances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causally-Rich Group Play: A Powerful Context for Building Preschoolers’ Vocabulary

2016

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This work explores whether the facilitative effect of causal information on preschoolers’ word learning observed in the laboratory might be relevant to boosting children’s vocabulary in a group-play context. Forty-eight 3- to 4-year-old children learned six novel words for novel tools introduced during a small group-play session. Half of the groups used the tools according to their specified function to construct a fruit salad. The remaining children used the same tools to decorate a castle of blocks. In this way, some children learned about the causal properties of the tools, while others did not. Although children in both conditions comprehended the novel words equally well when tested shortly after the play session, learning in the Causal condition was more robust. Children’s comprehension scores in the Causal condition increased over time (a 7–20 day delay), such that children in this group performed better than children in the Non-Causal condition when tested in a follow-up session. These results demonstrate a striking benefit of causal enrichment to word learning in a context that could feasibly be implemented in preschool classrooms, playgroups, and individual households. Highlighting the causal properties of objects during playtime might offer a powerful approach to building children’s vocabulary, thereby providing a stronger foundation for early literacy and success in school more generally speaking.

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Effects of causal information on the early word learning: Efficiency and longevity

Cited by 7 publications

References 33 publications

Children’s Preference for Causal Information in Storybooks

Children’s Preference for Causal Information in Storybooks

Preschoolers prefer to learn causal information

Causally-Rich Group Play: A Powerful Context for Building Preschoolers’ Vocabulary

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