The shape-bias in Spanish-speaking children and its relationship to vocabulary

Hahn, Erin R.; Cantrell, Lisa

doi:10.1017/s030500091100016x

Cited by 15 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The participants were children who were monolingual speakers of three different languages: English, Spanish and Japanese. These languages differ in how they individuate nouns; past research has shown cross-language differences in some aspects of the shape bias for children learning these languages (Colunga, Smith, & Gassar, 2009; Gathercole & Min, 1997; Hahn & Cantrell, 2012; Imai & Gentner, 1997; Yoshida & Smith, 2003). Thus, the comparison of children speaking these different languages provides a strong test of the universality of the effect of set size on individuation and attention to shape; if the effect is supported by basic perceptual and cognitive processes then set size should affect speakers across languages with varying ways of marking individuation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Set size, individuation, and attention to shape

Cantrell

Smith

2013

Cognition

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Much research has demonstrated a shape bias in categorizing and naming solid objects. This research has shown that when an entity is conceptualized as an individual object, adults and children attend to the object’s shape. Separate research in the domain of numerical cognition suggest that there are distinct processes for quantifying small and large sets of discrete items. This research shows that small set discrimination, comparison, and apprehension is often precise for 1–3 and sometimes 4 items; however, large numerosity representation is imprecise. Results from three experiments suggest a link between the processes for small and large number representation and the shape bias in a forced choice categorization task using naming and non-naming procedures. Experiment 1 showed that adults generalized a newly learned name for an object to new instances of the same shape only when those instances were presented in sets of less than 3 or 4. Experiment 2 showed that preschool children who were monolingual speakers of three different languages were also influenced by set size when categorizing objects in sets. Experiment 3 extended these results and showed the same effect in a non-naming task and when the novel noun was presented in a count-noun syntax frame. The results are discussed in terms of a relation between the precision of object representation and the precision of small and large number representation.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Set size, individuation, and attention to shape

Cantrell

Smith

2013

Cognition

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“…What the task does require is knowledge that shape and not color or size or texture is most likely the relevant dimension for determining category membership. This knowledge and the ability to selectively attend to shape in this task appear relevant to object name learning because 18- to 30-month-old children’s performances in the shape bias task are strongly related to their current noun vocabulary size (Smith, 1995; Gershkoff-Stowe and Smith, 2004; Perry and Samuelson, 2011; Hahn and Cantrell, 2012). More critically, the strength of the shape bias during this period also predicts children’s future vocabulary growth rate (Samuelson, 2002; Smith et al, 2002; Gershkoff-Stowe and Smith, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Visual Object Recognition Precede the Shape Bias in Early Noun Learning

Yee¹,

Jones²,

Smith³

2012

Front. Psychology

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Two of the most formidable skills that characterize human beings are language and our prowess in visual object recognition. They may also be developmentally intertwined. Two experiments, a large sample cross-sectional study and a smaller sample 6-month longitudinal study of 18- to 24-month-olds, tested a hypothesized developmental link between changes in visual object representation and noun learning. Previous findings in visual object recognition indicate that children’s ability to recognize common basic level categories from sparse structural shape representations of object shape emerges between the ages of 18 and 24 months, is related to noun vocabulary size, and is lacking in children with language delay. Other research shows in artificial noun learning tasks that during this same developmental period, young children systematically generalize object names by shape, that this shape bias predicts future noun learning, and is lacking in children with language delay. The two experiments examine the developmental relation between visual object recognition and the shape bias for the first time. The results show that developmental changes in visual object recognition systematically precede the emergence of the shape bias. The results suggest a developmental pathway in which early changes in visual object recognition that are themselves linked to category learning enable the discovery of higher-order regularities in category structure and thus the shape bias in novel noun learning tasks. The proposed developmental pathway has implications for understanding the role of specific experience in the development of both visual object recognition and the shape bias in early noun learning.

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“…This “shape bias” is thought to arise because children’s early English vocabularies are dominated by object names that refer to solid things belonging to categories organized by shape (e.g., ball, cup). The shape bias is also observed in some other languages, though not as robustly (e.g., Gathercole & Min, 1997; Hahn & Cantrell, 2012; Waxman, Senghas, & Benveniste, 1997). …”

Section: Children’s Early Vocabularies and Spaced Learningmentioning

confidence: 75%

Consider the category: The effect of spacing depends on individual learning histories

Slone

Sandhofer

2017

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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The spacing effect refers to increased retention following learning instances that are spaced out in time compared to massed together in time. By one account, the advantages of spaced learning should be independent of tasks particulars and previous learning experiences, as spacing effects have been demonstrated in a variety of tasks across the lifespan. However, by another account, spaced learning should be affected by previous learning because past learning affects the memory and attention processes that form the crux of the spacing effect. The present study investigated whether individuals’ learning histories affect the role of spacing in category learning. We examined the effect of spacing on 24 2- to 3.5-year-old children’s learning of categories organized by properties that children’s previous learning experiences have biased them to attend to (i.e., shape) and properties they are less biased to attend to (i.e., texture, color). Spaced presentations led to significantly better learning of shape categories, but not texture or color categories, compared to massed presentations. Additionally, Generalized Estimating Equations analyses revealed positive relations between the size of children’s “shape-side” productive vocabularies and their shape category learning, and between the size of children’s “against-the-system” productive vocabularies and their texture category learning. These results suggest that children’s attention to and memory for novel object categories are strongly related to their individual word-learning histories. Moreover, children’s learned attentional biases affected the types of categories for which spacing facilitated learning. These findings highlight the importance of considering how learners’ previous experiences may influence future learning.

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The shape-bias in Spanish-speaking children and its relationship to vocabulary

Cited by 15 publications

References 32 publications

Set size, individuation, and attention to shape

Set size, individuation, and attention to shape

Changes in Visual Object Recognition Precede the Shape Bias in Early Noun Learning

Consider the category: The effect of spacing depends on individual learning histories

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