Seeing Iconic Gesture Promotes First‐ and Second‐Order Verb Generalization in Preschoolers

Aussems, Suzanne; Kita, Sotaro

doi:10.1111/cdev.13392

Cited by 10 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Second, our study is the first to show an effect of function training on second-order generalization. Thus, it expands the existing literature on how to facilitate second-order generalization (Aussems & Kita, 2021;Perry et al, 2010;Samuelson, 2002;Smith et al, 2002;Ware & Booth, 2010). Third, and most importantly, our results show that 19-month-olds are cognitively ready to use function for word learning.…”

Section: Function Training Promotes First-and Second-order Noun Generalizationsupporting

confidence: 80%

Beyond the Shape of Things: Infants Can Be Taught to Generalize Nouns by Objects’ Functions

et al. 2021

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Two-year-olds typically extend labels of novel objects by the objects’ shape ( shape bias), whereas adults do so by the objects’ function. Is this because shape is conceptually easier to comprehend than function? To test whether the conceptual complexity of function prevents infants from developing a function bias, we trained twelve 17-month-olds (function-training group) to focus on objects’ functions when labeling the objects over a period of 7 weeks. Our training was similar to previously used methods in which 17-month-olds were successfully taught to focus on the shape of objects, resulting in a precocious shape bias. We exposed another 12 infants (control group) to the same objects over 7 weeks but without labeling the items or demonstrating their functions. Only the infants in the function-training group developed a function bias. Thus, the conceptual complexity of function was not a barrier for developing a function bias, which suggests that the shape bias emerges naturally because shape is perceptually more accessible than function.

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Section: Function Training Promotes First-and Second-order Noun Generalizationsupporting

confidence: 80%

Beyond the Shape of Things: Infants Can Be Taught to Generalize Nouns by Objects’ Functions

et al. 2021

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“…For example, if a caregiver used highly iconic words like STICKY, SPIKY, or TAP to describe an object's texture, shape, or function, it could help draw the child's attention to the object and its features. Indeed, previous studies of novel action encoding reveal that iconic gestures facilitate children's memory of those actions (Aussems & Kita, 2019) and their labels (Aussems & Kita, 2020). More generally, cues that draw attention to an object and its features, including social cues such as pointing (Horst & Samuelson, 2008), or visual cues such as flashing lights (Axelsson, Churchley, & Horst, 2012), help children form word-referent associations and remember them later.…”

Section: A Developmental Cascade Account Of Iconicitymentioning

confidence: 97%

What Is the Buzz About Iconicity? How Iconicity in Caregiver Speech Supports Children's Word Learning

et al. 2021

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One cue that may facilitate children's word learning is iconicity, or the correspondence between a word's form and meaning. Some have even proposed that iconicity in the early lexicon may serve to help children learn how to learn words, supporting the acquisition of even noniconic, or arbitrary, word–referent associations. However, this proposal remains untested. Here, we investigate the iconicity of caregivers’ speech to young children during a naturalistic free‐play session with novel stimuli and ask whether the iconicity of caregivers’ speech facilitates children's learning of the noniconic novel names of those stimuli. Thirty‐four 1.5‐2‐year‐olds (19 girls; half monolingual English learners and half bilingual English‐Spanish learners) participated in a naturalistic free‐play task with their caregivers followed by a test of word‐referent retention. We found that caregivers’ use of iconicity, particularly in utterances in which they named the novel stimuli, was associated with the likelihood that children learned that novel name. This result held even when controlling for other factors associated with word learning, such as the concreteness and frequency of words in caregiver speech. Together, the results demonstrate that iconicity not only can serve to help children identify the referent of novel words (as in previous research) but can also support their ability to retain even noniconic word‐referent mappings.

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“…First, Mumford and Kita (2014) showed that 3-year-old children use iconic gestures to interpret novel verb meanings. Furthermore, Aussems and Kita (2021) showed that children use iconic gestures not only to interpret individual verb meanings, but also to learn more novel verbs from the same category, even when iconic gestures are absent. Thus, iconic gesture helped children to create general knowledge for how to learn verbs of the same category which they could use later.…”

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confidence: 99%

Prior experience with unlabeled actions promotes 3-year-old children’s verb learning.

Aussems¹,

Mumford²,

Kita³

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Seeing Iconic Gesture Promotes First‐ and Second‐Order Verb Generalization in Preschoolers

Cited by 10 publications

References 48 publications

Beyond the Shape of Things: Infants Can Be Taught to Generalize Nouns by Objects’ Functions

Beyond the Shape of Things: Infants Can Be Taught to Generalize Nouns by Objects’ Functions

What Is the Buzz About Iconicity? How Iconicity in Caregiver Speech Supports Children's Word Learning

Prior experience with unlabeled actions promotes 3-year-old children’s verb learning.

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