Familiar Object Salience Affects Novel Word Learning

Pomper, Ron; Saffran, Jenny R.

doi:10.1111/cdev.13053

“…The fact that children's processing was more robust in their dominant language adds to recent literature suggesting that bilinguals' early vocabulary depends on the balance of input they receive in each language (e.g., Marchman et al, 2017;Place & Hoff, 2011). We did not find significant associations between children's vocabulary and real-time processing (see Bergelson & Swingley, 2015;Pomper & Saffran, 2018 for other examples of inconsistent relations). This result may be an artifact of parents' difficulty estimating children's knowledge in two languages (e.g., Marchman et al, 2017), may reflect that within-language estimates of vocabulary are not appropriate for capturing between-language comprehension (e.g., Place & Hoff, 2011, or may be due to limitations in the precision with which we can quantify individual infants' vocabulary and/or real-time processing abilities (e.g., Trafimow, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Bilingual toddlers' comprehension of mixed sentences is asymmetrical across their two languages

Potter¹,

Fourakis²,

Morin-Lessard³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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In bilingual language environments, infants and toddlers listen to two separate languages during the same key years that monolingual children listen to just one and bilinguals rarely learn each of their two languages at the same rate. Learning to understand language requires them to cope with challenges not found in monolingual input, notably the use of two languages within the same utterance (e.g., Do you like the perro? or ¿Te gusta el doggy?). For bilinguals of all ages, switching between two languages can reduce the efficiency in real‐time language processing. But language switching is a dynamic phenomenon in bilingual environments, presenting the young learner with many junctures where comprehension can be derailed or even supported. In this study, we tested 20 Spanish–English bilingual toddlers (18‐ to 30‐months) who varied substantially in language dominance. Toddlers’ eye movements were monitored as they looked at familiar objects and listened to single‐language and mixed‐language sentences in both of their languages. We found asymmetrical switch costs when toddlers were tested in their dominant versus non‐dominant language, and critically, they benefited from hearing nouns produced in their dominant language, independent of switching. While bilingualism does present unique challenges, our results suggest a united picture of early monolingual and bilingual learning. Just like monolinguals, experience shapes bilingual toddlers’ word knowledge, and with more robust representations, toddlers are better able to recognize words in diverse sentences.

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“…However, when toddlers heard sentence frames in their non-dominant language, they successfully recognized target nouns in both languages. We did not find significant associations between children's vocabulary and real-time processing (seeBergelson & Swingley, 2015;Pomper & Saffran, 2018 for other examples of inconsistent relations). Thus, not all language switching impedes processing, and the robustness of bilingual toddlers' word knowledge influences their real-time comprehension of simple sentences.…”

mentioning

confidence: 60%

Bilingual toddlers’ comprehension of mixed sentences is asymmetrical across their two languages

Potter

¹

,

Fourakis

²

,

Morin-Lessard

³

et al. 2019

Developmental Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In bilingual language environments, infants and toddlers listen to two separate languages during the same key years that monolingual children listen to just one and bilinguals rarely learn each of their two languages at the same rate. Learning to understand language requires them to cope with challenges not found in monolingual input, notably the use of two languages within the same utterance (e.g., Do you like the perro? or ¿Te gusta el doggy?). For bilinguals of all ages, switching between two languages can reduce the efficiency in real‐time language processing. But language switching is a dynamic phenomenon in bilingual environments, presenting the young learner with many junctures where comprehension can be derailed or even supported. In this study, we tested 20 Spanish–English bilingual toddlers (18‐ to 30‐months) who varied substantially in language dominance. Toddlers’ eye movements were monitored as they looked at familiar objects and listened to single‐language and mixed‐language sentences in both of their languages. We found asymmetrical switch costs when toddlers were tested in their dominant versus non‐dominant language, and critically, they benefited from hearing nouns produced in their dominant language, independent of switching. While bilingualism does present unique challenges, our results suggest a united picture of early monolingual and bilingual learning. Just like monolinguals, experience shapes bilingual toddlers’ word knowledge, and with more robust representations, toddlers are better able to recognize words in diverse sentences.

show abstract

“…In contrast, in reaching versions of the tasks eighteen-month-old toddlers do not perform well on reference selection or retention (Kucker, McMurry & Samuelson, 2018), 24-month-olds perform well on reference selection, but they do not retain the mappings (Samuelson & Horst, 2008), and by 30 months of age children are good at both (see Kucker, McMurray, & Samuelson, 2015a for a review and discussion). Both reference selection and retention, however, can be influenced by a number of external and organismic factors (see e.g., Axelsson & Horst, 2014;Kalashnikova, Escudero & Kidd, 2018;Kucker & Samuelson, 2012;Pomper & Saffran, 2018, Twomey, Ranson, & Horst, 2013. Still other research indicates that children as young as 13 months of age can map and, in some cases, retain novel word-object mappings when only one name and one object are presented at a time (Schafer & Plunkett, 1998;Woodward, Markman, & Fitzsimmons, 1994).…”

Section: Reference Selection and Retention Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Bayley: Neurocognitive Assessments of Development During Infancy and Toddlerhood

Brito

¹

,

Fifer

²

,

Amso

³

et al. 2019

Developmental Neuropsychology

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The use of global, standardized instruments is conventional among clinicians and researchers interested in assessing neurocognitive development. Exclusively relying on these tests for evaluating effects may underestimate or miss specific effects on early cognition. The goal of this review is to identify alternative measures for possible inclusion in future clinical trials and interventions evaluating early neurocognitive development. The domains included for consideration are attention, memory, executive function, language and socio-emotional development. Although domain-based tests are limited, as psychometric properties have not yet been well-established, this review includes tasks and paradigms that have been reliably used across various developmental psychology laboratories.

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Familiar Object Salience Affects Novel Word Learning

Cited by 35 publications

References 63 publications

Bilingual toddlers' comprehension of mixed sentences is asymmetrical across their two languages

Bilingual toddlers' comprehension of mixed sentences is asymmetrical across their two languages

Bilingual toddlers’ comprehension of mixed sentences is asymmetrical across their two languages

Beyond the Bayley: Neurocognitive Assessments of Development During Infancy and Toddlerhood

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