Perceptual Connectivity Influences Toddlers’ Attention to Known Objects and Subsequent Label Processing

Abstract

While recent research suggests that toddlers tend to learn word meanings with many “perceptual” features that are accessible to the toddler’s sensory perception, it is not clear whether and how building a lexicon with perceptual connectivity supports attention to and recognition of word meanings. We explore this question in 24–30-month-olds (N = 60) in relation to other individual differences, including age, vocabulary size, and tendencies to maintain focused attention. Participants’ looking to item pairs with high vs. low perceptual connectivity—defined as the number of words in a child’s lexicon sharing perceptual features with the item—was measured before and after target item labeling. Results revealed pre-labeling attention to known items is biased to both high- and low-connectivity items: first to high, and second, but more robustly, to low-connectivity items. Subsequent object–label processing was also facilitated for high-connectivity items, particularly for children with temperamental tendencies to maintain focused attention. This work provides the first empirical evidence that patterns of shared perceptual features within children’s known vocabularies influence both visual and lexical processing, highlighting the potential for a newfound set of developmental dependencies based on the perceptual/sensory structure of early vocabularies.

Developmental changes in phonological and semantic priming effects in Spanish-speaking toddlers.

“…Trials in which toddlers looked at the areas of interest during less than 10% of the analysis window were excluded (for a similar approach, see Angulo-Chavira & Arias-Trejo, 2018, 2021; Borovsky et al, 2016b; Peters et al, 2021). The PTLs of individual trials were aggregated by condition and subject.…”

“…Measurement of the time-course of fixations can thus help track the development of priming effects at early ages with the beginning of a rudimentary semantic system. This type of analysis has been used successfully in IPL tasks manipulating phonological, semantic, and perceptual information (Borovsky & Peters, 2019; Peters et al, 2021; Swingley et al, 1999), and it has also been helpful in determining the timing of access to semantic and phonological knowledge (Chow et al, 2017).…”

“…Vocabulary structure also modulates early lexical processing (Borovsky et al, 2016a, 2016b; Borovsky & Peters, 2019; Mani & Plunkett, 2011; Peters et al, 2021). Borovsky and Peters (2019) show that at 18 months, vocabulary size and network measures have a different impact on language processing in an IPL task with and without semantic competition.…”

“…We also expected lesser pupil dilation in the related than unrelated condition as a marker of facilitation in the semantic task, but greater dilation as a marker of interference in the phonological task (Angulo-Chavira & Arias-Trejo, 2021). Finally, we expected that measures of vocabulary network connectivity such as density, clustering coefficient, and closeness centrality would be positively correlated with PTL and pupil dilation across ages (Borovsky et al, 2016b; Peters et al, 2021).…”

Lexico-semantic structure in vocabulary and its links to lexical processing in toddlerhood and language outcomes at age three.

“…Semantic feature approaches have persisted due to their extensively replicated ability to explain behavioral and neural indices of performance in a range of psycholinguistic tasks (Chang et al, 2011; Grondin et al, 2009; McRae et al, 1997; Pexman et al, 2008; Rabovsky et al, 2021; Taylor et al, 2012). Compared with the adult literature, relatively less developmental work has focused on how lexical processing is impacted by featural overlap among word meanings, although there is some evidence that early lexical processing can be affected by perceptual (feature) overlap among word meanings (Arias-Trejo & Plunkett, 2010; Mani et al, 2013; Peters et al, 2021). For example, Arias-Trejo and Plunkett (2010) find toddlers’ lexical processing is most impacted when a target object appears with a distractor that shares perceptual and taxonomic features in common, and not either one alone.…”