15-Month-Old Infants Fast Map Words but Not Representational Gestures of Multimodal Labels

Abstract

This study investigated whether 15-month-old infants fast map multimodal labels, and, when given the choice of two modalities, whether they preferentially fast map one better than the other. Sixty 15-month-old infants watched films where an actress repeatedly and ostensively labeled two novel objects using a spoken word along with a representational gesture. In the test phase, infants were assigned to one of three conditions: Word, Word + Gesture, or Gesture. The objects appeared in a shelf next to the experimenter and, depending on the condition, infants were prompted with either a word, a gesture, or a multimodal word–gesture combination. Using an infant eye tracker, we determined whether infants made the correct mappings. Results revealed that only infants in the Word condition had learned the novel object labels. When the representational gesture was presented alone or when the verbal label was accompanied by a representational gesture, infants did not succeed in making the correct mappings. Results reveal that 15-month-old infants do not benefit from multimodal labeling and that they prefer words over representational gestures as object labels in multimodal utterances. Findings put into question the role of multimodal labeling in early language development.

A “Bat” Is Easier to Learn than a “Tab”: Effects of Relative Phonotactic Frequency on Infant Word Learning

“…First, the proportion of on-screen looks during the course of the 8 trials was calculated for each infant. We excluded six infants with less than 50% on-screen data (between 32% and 49%) to ensure that infants were sufficiently engaged in the task (see also [65], for a similar inclusion criteria).…”

“…This was done in order to remove trials in which the baseline preference was not well established (similar to [66]–[67]), and in which the participant is considered as not sufficiently exposed to the material of the given trial (see also e.g. in [65], [68]). Finally, only those infants who had at least two analyzable trials per condition were included to have a better estimate of each infant’s “true” naming effect (N = 5 did not meet this criterion; for a similar criterion, see also [69]).…”

The pragmatics of word learning

“…When arbitrary (instead of iconic) gestures are produced together with novel words, toddlers' word learning is compromised (Puccini & Liszkowski, 2012). This suggests that when a gesture is not informative about a speaker's intended referent, children's attempt to integrate gesture and speech is at its limits and hinders their word learning.…”

Method and Evidence: Gesture and Iconicity in the Evolution of Language

“…Puccini and Liszkowski () used a similar set‐up to Marentette and Nicoladis () above to investigate how well 15‐month‐old infants fast‐map symbols in the vocal and gestural channel separately, and both together. The infants watched films of explicit naming events, where objects were either labelled with a word, a gesture, or a word plus gesture.…”