Semantic Structure in Vocabulary Knowledge Interacts With Lexical and Sentence Processing in Infancy

Abstract

While the size of a child’s vocabulary associates with language processing skills, little is understood regarding how this relation emerges. This investigation asks whether and how the structure of vocabulary knowledge affects language processing in English-learning 24-month-old children (N=32; 18 F, 14 M). Parental vocabulary report was used to calculate semantic density in several early-acquired semantic categories. Performance on two language-processing tasks (lexical recognition and sentence processing) was compared as a function of semantic density. In both tasks, real-time comprehension was facilitated for higher density items, while lower density items experienced more interference. The findings indicate that language processing skills develop heterogeneously and are influenced by the semantic network surrounding a known word.

The amount and structure of prior event experience affects anticipatory sentence interpretation

“…In an attempt to capture these real-time dynamics within a sentence, we implemented a non-parametric statistical approach that can identify fine-grained time windows of Target divergence while controlling for Type I error (see Groppe, Urbach, & Kutas, 2011; Maris & Oostenveld, 2007 for more statistical details about this procedure). This procedure has been recently adopted by a number of groups (Barr, Jackson, & Phillips, 2014; Borovsky, Ellis, Evans, & Elman, in press; Von Holzen & Mani, 2012). Specifically, a cluster-based permutation analysis is used to identify precise time windows across the sentence period where fixations towards the Target significantly exceed fixations towards each of the visual competitor items, individually.…”

Infants’ Lexical Processing Efficiency is Related to Vocabulary Size by One Year of Age

“…Developing larger, more densely connected lexical networks is likely to support improvements in LPE (Borovsky et al, 2016). Developing larger, more densely connected lexical networks is likely to support improvements in LPE (Borovsky et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, 18-month-olds are faster to recognize words that come from relatively dense semantic networks (Borovsky, Ellis, Evans, & Elman, 2016), suggesting that adding words to early lexical networks may facilitate lexical access. Learning words over multiple exposures provides opportunities to practice encoding and recognizing word forms, as well as accessing their meanings, and thus the process of learning words is likely to hone the skills used for lexical recognition.…”

The Development of Lexical–Semantic Networks in Infants and Toddlers

“…This lexical–semantic structure affects how toddlers comprehend and learn language. First, 2‐year‐olds process familiar words faster if they also know many other words from the same category . In addition, eye‐tracking evidence suggests that when 2‐year‐olds hear a noun but do not see a picture of the word's referent (e.g., they hear the word banana but do not see a picture of a banana), they look to pictures of the word's taxonomic and associated neighbors (in this example, tomato or monkey ; ).…”