Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This paper focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24- to 30-months (N=36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and non-contingent video training (yoked video). Results suggest that children only learned novel verbs in socially contingent interactions (live interactions and video chat). The current study highlights the importance of social contingency in interactions for language learning and informs the literature on learning through screen media as the first study to examine word learning through video chat technology.

The availability of educational programming aimed at infants and toddlers is increasing, yet the effect of video on language acquisition remains unclear. Three studies of 96 children aged 30–42 months investigated their ability to learn verbs from video. Study 1 asked whether children could learn verbs from video when supported by live social interaction. Study 2 tested whether children could learn verbs from video alone. Study 3 clarified whether the benefits of social interaction remained when the experimenter was shown on a video screen rather than in person. Results suggest that younger children only learn verbs from video with live social interaction while older children can learn verbs from video alone. Implications for verb learning and educational media are discussed.

To learn motion verbs, infants must be sensitive to the specific event features lexicalized in their language. One event feature important for the acquisition of English motion verbs is the manner of motion. This paper examines when and how infants detect manners of motion across variations in the figure’s path. Experiment 1 shows that 13- to 15-month-olds (N=30) can detect an invariant manner of motion when the figure’s path changes. Experiment 2 reveals that reducing the complexity of the events, by dampening the figure’s path, helps 10- to 12-month-olds (N=19) detect the invariant manner. These findings suggest that: 1) infants notice event features lexicalized in English motion verbs, and; 2) attention to manner can be promoted by reducing event complexity.

Throughout their first year, infants adeptly detect statistical structure in their environment. However, little is known about whether statistical learning is a primary mechanism for event segmentation. This study directly tests whether statistical learning alone is sufficient to segment continuous events. Twenty-eight 7- to 9-month-old infants viewed a sequence of continuous actions performed by a novel agent in which there were no transitional movements that could have constrained the possible upcoming actions. At test, infants distinguished statistically intact units from less predictable ones. The ability to segment events using statistical structure may help infants discover other cues to event boundaries, such as intentions, and carve up the world of continuous motion in meaningful ways.