What do we know when we claim to know nothing? Partial knowledge of word meanings may be ontological, but not hierarchical

Mitsven

Poulin‐Dubois

et al. 2014

Developmental Science

The goal of the current study is to assess the temporal dynamics of vision and action to evaluate the underlying word representations that guide infants’ responses. Sixteen-month-old infants participated in a two-alternative forced-choice word-picture matching task. We conducted a moment-by-moment analysis of looking and reaching behaviors as they occurred in tandem to assess the speed with which a prompted word was processed (visual reaction time) as a function of the type of haptic response: Target, Distractor, or No Touch. Visual reaction times (visual RTs) were significantly slower during No Touches compared to Distractor and Target Touches, which were statistically indistinguishable. The finding that visual RTs were significantly faster during Distractor Touches compared to No Touches suggests that incorrect and absent haptic responses appear to index distinct knowledge states: incorrect responses are associated with partial knowledge whereas absent responses appear to reflect a true failure to map lexical items to their target referents. Further, we found that those children who were faster at processing words were also those children who exhibited better haptic performance. This research provides a methodological clarification on knowledge measured by the visual and haptic modalities and new evidence for a continuum of word knowledge in the second year of life.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking and touching: what extant approaches reveal about the structure of early word knowledge

Mitsven

Poulin‐Dubois

et al. 2014

Developmental Science

“…An alternate view suggests that word knowledge is not dichotomous but instead exists on a continuum from absence of knowledge, to partial knowledge, to robust knowledge (Frishkoff, Perfetti, & Westbury, 2009; Henderson, Weighall, & Gaskell, 2013; Hendrickson, Mitsven, Poulin-Dubois, Zesiger, & Friend, 2015; Ince & Christman, 2002; McClelland & Elman, 1986; McMurray, 2007; Schwanenflugel, Stahl, & McFalls, 1997; Shore & Durso, 1991; Steele, 2012; Stein & Shore, 2012; Suanda, Mugwanya, & Namy, 2014; Whitmore, Shore, & Smith, 2004; Zareva, 2012). In contrast to theories that suggest that word learning is all-or-none (Gallistel, Fairhurst, & Balsam, 2004; Trueswell et al, 2013), incremental learning theories of word comprehension rely on the assumption that word knowledge is incremental and unfolds over time (McMurray, Horst, & Samuelson, 2012; Rogers & McClelland, 2004; Siskind, 1996; Spivey et al, 2010; Yu, 2008; Yu & Smith, 2007; Yurovsky, Fricker, Yu, & Smith, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing a continuum of lexical–semantic knowledge in the second year of life: A multimodal approach

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Poulin‐Dubois

Zesiger

et al. 2017

Behavioral dissociations in young children’s visual and haptic responses have been taken as evidence that word knowledge is not all-or-none but instead exists on a continuum from absence of knowledge, to partial knowledge, to robust knowledge. This longitudinal study tested a group of 16- to 18-month-olds, 6 months after their initial visit, to replicate results of partial understanding as shown by visual–haptic dissociations and to determine whether partial knowledge of word–referent relations can be leveraged for future word recognition. Results show that, like 16-month-olds, 22-month-olds demonstrate behavioral dissociations exhibited by rapid visual reaction times to a named referent but incorrect haptic responses. Furthermore, results suggest that partial word knowledge at one time predicts the degree to which that word will be understood in the future.

“…Fourteen-month-old's decontextualized understanding of words for absent objects Traditionally, investigations into the developing lexicon were largely focused on measuring the volume of words children comprehend as if word knowledge were an all-or-none phenomenon. However, a rich history of behavioral and computational research with adults supports the notion that word knowledge is not all-or-none (Frishkoff, Perfetti, & Westbury, 2009;Stein & Shore, 2012). Specifically, word knowledge becomes increasingly decontextualized as partial knowledge becomes more robust over time with experience (Yukovsky, Flicker, Yu, & Smith, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fourteen-month-olds’ decontextualized understanding of words for absent objects

Sundara

2016

J. Child Lang.

The majority of research examining infants' decontextualized word knowledge comes from studies in which words and pictures are presented simultaneously. However, comprehending utterances about unseen objects is a hallmark of language. Do infants demonstrate decontextualized absent object knowledge early in the second year of life? Further, to what extent do words evoke strictly prototypical representations of absent objects? To investigate these questions we analyzed 14-month-olds' comprehension of labels for absent entities without contextual support. In a novel, auditory-visual priming paradigm, infants heard passages containing two target words and then saw four animations - two that matched the meaning of the target words and two they had not heard in the passages. We found that by age 1;2, spoken words evoke prototypical representations of absent entities. Additionally, our findings demonstrate a promising new method for exploring absent object comprehension in infants.