Making sense of sensory language: Acquisition of sensory knowledge by individuals with congenital sensory impairments

Campbell, Erin; Bergelson, Elika

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108320

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 139 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Differences in language input to blind children could also explain the wide variability in language outcomes. By hypothesis, associations between language input and vocabulary development might even be stronger in blind children, given that language input may be blind children's source of “visual” information about the world (Campbell & Bergelson, 2022b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of vision in the acquisition of words: Vocabulary development in blind toddlers

Campbell,

Casillas,

Bergelson

2024

Developmental Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

What is vision's role in driving early word production? To answer this, we assessed parent‐report vocabulary questionnaires administered to congenitally blind children (N = 40, Mean age = 24 months [R: 7–57 months]) and compared the size and contents of their productive vocabulary to those of a large normative sample of sighted children (N = 6574). We found that on average, blind children showed a roughly half‐year vocabulary delay relative to sighted children, amid considerable variability. However, the content of blind and sighted children's vocabulary was statistically indistinguishable in word length, part of speech, semantic category, concreteness, interactiveness, and perceptual modality. At a finer‐grained level, we also found that words’ perceptual properties intersect with children's perceptual abilities. Our findings suggest that while an absence of visual input may initially make vocabulary development more difficult, the content of the early productive vocabulary is largely resilient to differences in perceptual access.Research Highlights Infants and toddlers born blind (with no other diagnoses) show a 7.5 month productive vocabulary delay on average, with wide variability. Across the studied age range (7–57 months), vocabulary delays widened with age. Blind and sighted children's early vocabularies contain similar distributions of word lengths, parts of speech, semantic categories, and perceptual modalities. Blind children (but not sighted children) were more likely to say visual words which could also be experienced through other senses.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of vision in the acquisition of words: Vocabulary development in blind toddlers

Campbell,

Casillas,

Bergelson

2024

Developmental Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While it appears intuitive that learning engages all senses, and not just the visual sense, the learning sciences field is rich with examples of vision-centred practices in mainstream education. Conversely, the role of non-visual senses such as touch or proprioception dominates multisensory learning studies from special educational practice (e.g., van Staden and Purcell, 2016;Campbell and Bergelson, 2022). This division of higher versus lower senses and mainstream versus special education has been criticised for its scientific inadequacy and propagation of educational inequities, notably by scholars working in the new and critical pedagogy and critical literacy tradition (e.g., Leu, et al, 2004;Burnett, et al, 2014;.…”

Section: Sensory Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering children’s agency in their learning futures: Exploring the synergy of generative AI and sensory learning

Kucirkova

2024

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The discourse surrounding the potential educational transformation brought about by generative AI has largely neglected the sensory aspect of learning. In this position paper, I emphasize the significance of sensory studies and their theoretical foundations of embodiment and multimodality as catalysts for novel perspectives on the intersection of AI and the future of education. I delve into the question of whether generative AI serves as a precursor to a new literacy or merely arises as a consequence of ongoing theoretical advancements in contemporary literacy studies. I argue that the concept of agency, which includes both personal and social aspects, should be central to recognizing the importance of sensory learning as an emerging paradigm in reimagining learning futures.

show abstract

“…According to linguistic-sensorimotor theories, when both linguistic distributional knowledge and sensorimotor experience can provide similar information in a task, the former offers a semantic heuristic (i.e., adequate means of achieving a goal) that makes cognitive processing more efficient. Such redundancy between linguistic distributional knowledge and sensorimotor experience also allows language models to predict congenitally blind participants’ judgments about object color and thus may provide a means for people with congenital sensory impairments to acquire semantic knowledge about things they cannot perceive (for review, see Campbell & Bergelson, 2022).…”

Section: Language Models As Plausible Cognitive Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Can Language Models Tell Us About Human Cognition?

Connell,

Lynott

2024

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Language models are a rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence with enormous potential to improve our understanding of human cognition. However, many popular language models are cognitively implausible on multiple fronts. For language models to offer plausible insights into human cognitive processing, they should implement a transparent and cognitively plausible learning mechanism, train on a quantity of text that is achievable in a human’s lifetime of language exposure, and not assume to represent all of word meaning. When care is taken to create plausible language models within these constraints, they can be a powerful tool in uncovering the nature and scope of how language shapes semantic knowledge. The distributional relationships between words, which humans represent in memory as linguistic distributional knowledge, allow people to represent and process semantic information flexibly, robustly, and efficiently.

show abstract

Making sense of sensory language: Acquisition of sensory knowledge by individuals with congenital sensory impairments

Cited by 10 publications

References 139 publications

The role of vision in the acquisition of words: Vocabulary development in blind toddlers

The role of vision in the acquisition of words: Vocabulary development in blind toddlers

Fostering children’s agency in their learning futures: Exploring the synergy of generative AI and sensory learning

What Can Language Models Tell Us About Human Cognition?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About