Nineteen‐Month‐Olds' Understanding of the Conventionality of Object Labels Versus Desires

Graham, Susan A.; Stock, Hayli R.; Henderson, Annette M. E.

doi:10.1207/s15327078in0903_5

Cited by 80 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This finding is also consistent with results suggesting that by the second half of the first year, infants generalize object labels across contexts (e.g., Henderson & Graham, 2005;Graham, Stock, & Henderson, 2006;Henderson & Woodward, 2012;Novack, Henderson, & Woodward, 2014). More generally, these data are consistent with the hypothesis that young children are sensitive to social cues that signal communicative intent, and that such cues might guide learning behavior (e.g., Csibra, 2010;Csibra & Gergeley, 2009 Baldwin, 1993;Csibra & Gergeley, 2009).…”

Section: This Finding Corroborates and Extends Work By Brooker Andsupporting

confidence: 86%

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Luchkina¹,

Sobel²,

Morgan³

2018

Preprint

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• Toddlers generalize words learned from speakers who accurately label familiar objects, but not speakers who are inaccurate.• When speakers ask questions that contain accurate or inaccurate labels for objects during familiarization, toddlers do not consider either speaker a reliable source of knowledge for novel labels.• These data suggest that toddlers are using more than word-object-speaker associations to determine speaker reliability. | INTRODUC TI ONBecause the relation between how a word sounds and what a word means is arbitrary and conventional (Saussure, 1916(Saussure, /1966, children must learn the meanings of words from other competent language users. Several studies have found that preschoolers use speakers' history of accuracy in labeling familiar words when they learn meanings of novel words. For example, Koenig and colleagues (e.g., Koenig & Harris, 2005) have shown that 4-year-olds identified an informant who was accurate in labeling familiar objects as knowledgeable about the meaning of words, and predicted that she would be more likely to know the name of a novel object over an informant who was always inaccurate at labeling familiar objects.Even before children reach preschool age, they exhibit an ability to track interlocutors' competence or accuracy and use it in learning situations. For example, Zmyj, Buttelmann, Carpenter, and Daum (2010) showed that 14-month-olds are less likely to imitate agents' novel actions when those agents use familiar objects incompetently (for example, putting a shoe on their hand instead of foot) than when agents use familiar objects competently. Similarly, 12-month-olds track informants' competence and use it in their own exploratory behavior (Stenberg, 2013). Even 8-month-old infants have the capacity to monitor the reliability of a potential informant's gaze and AbstractThe present studies examine whether and how 18-month-olds use informants' accuracy to acquire novel labels for novel objects and generalize them to a new context. In Experiment 1, two speakers made statements about the labels of familiar objects. One used accurate labels and the other used inaccurate labels. One of these speakers then introduced novel labels for two novel objects. At test, toddlers saw those two novel objects and heard an unfamiliar voice say one of the labels provided by the speaker. Only toddlers who had heard the novel labels introduced by the accurate speaker looked at the appropriate novel object above chance. Experiment 2 explored possible mechanisms underlying this difference in generalization. Rather than making statements about familiar objects' labels, both speakers asked questions about the objects' labels, with one speaker using accurate labels and the other using inaccurate labels. Toddlers' generalization of novel labels for novel objects was at chance for both speakers, suggesting that toddlers do not simply associate hearing the accurate label with the reliability of the speaker. We discuss these results in terms of potential mechanisms by which children learn ...

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Section: This Finding Corroborates and Extends Work By Brooker Andsupporting

confidence: 86%

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Luchkina¹,

Sobel²,

Morgan³

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research has shown that from a very young age, infants recognize that language is conventional (e.g., Buresh & Woodward, 2007a;Diesendruck & Markson, 2001;Graham, Stock, & Henderson, 2006; see also Koenig & Echols, 2003) but that goals are not (Buresh & Woodward, 2007a), nor are desires (Graham et al, 2006), nor are personal facts about an object (e.g., ''My uncle gave this to me'') (Diesendruck & Markson, 2001). Children as young as 2 and 3 years have also demonstrated an understanding that conventions play a role in games, and as such the rules of a game should not be broken (Rakoczy, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2008; see also Rakoczy, Brosche, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking good versus doing good: Which factors take precedence when children learn about new tools?

DiYanni

Nini

Rheel

2011

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…There is evidence that young children have some understanding of this dependency. Infants expect two people to share knowledge of common nouns (Buresh & Woodward, 2007;Graham, Stock, & Henderson, 2006;Henderson & Graham, 2005;Henderson & Woodward, 2012) but this expectation of shared knowledge does not extend to proper names (Diesendruck, 2005) or preferences (Fawcett & Markson, 2010a). At the level of specific languages, infants distinguish between the sounds (Mehler, Jusczyk, Lambertz, Halsted, Bertoncini, & Amiel-Tison, 1988) and speakers of their own and other languages (Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2007), and prefer speakers of their own language (e.g., Kinzler et al, 2007;Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2012).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s Third-Party Understanding of Communicative Interactions in a Foreign Language

Afshordi

Sullivan

Markson

2018

Collabra: Psychology

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Two studies explored young children's understanding of the role of shared language in communication by investigating how monolingual English-speaking children interact with an English speaker, a Spanish speaker, and a bilingual experimenter who spoke both English and Spanish. When the bilingual experimenter spoke in Spanish or English to request objects, four-year-old children, but not three-year-olds, used her language choice to determine whom she addressed (e.g. requests in Spanish were directed to the Spanish speaker). Importantly, children used this cue -language choice -only in a communicative context. The findings suggest that by four years, monolingual children recognize that speaking the same language enables successful communication, even when that language is unfamiliar to them. Three-year-old children's failure to make this distinction suggests that this capacity likely undergoes significant development in early childhood, although other capacities might also be at play.

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Nineteen‐Month‐Olds' Understanding of the Conventionality of Object Labels Versus Desires

Cited by 80 publications

References 19 publications

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Looking good versus doing good: Which factors take precedence when children learn about new tools?

Children’s Third-Party Understanding of Communicative Interactions in a Foreign Language

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