Third-Party Social Interaction and Word Learning From Video

Abstract

In previous studies, very young children have learned words while “overhearing” a conversation, yet they have had trouble learning words from a person on video. In Study 1, 64 toddlers (mean age = 29.8 months) viewed an object-labeling demonstration in one of four conditions. In two, the speaker (present or on video) directly addressed the child and in two, the speaker addressed another adult who was present or was with her on video. Study 2 involved two follow-up conditions with 32 toddlers (mean age = 30.4 months). Across the two studies, the results indicated that toddlers learned words best when participating in or observing a reciprocal social interaction with a speaker who was present or on video.

Music interferes with learning from television during infancy

“…Consistent with that argument, research with older toddlers and preschoolers has demonstrated that the lack of contingency reduces levels of interactivity and comprehension of video material (Calvert, Strong, & Gallagher, 2005;Crawley, Anderson, Wilder, Williams, & Santomero, 1999;Flynn & Whiten, 2008;Nielsen et al, 2008;Troseth, 2003;Troseth et al, 2006). There is limited evidence that similar social cues or expectations about interpersonal interactions help young infants and toddlers learn language from televised media (Linebarger & Vaala, 2009;O'Doherty, 2009).…”

Young children overimitate in third-party contexts

“…Hence, any learning that took place must be viewed in this third-party context. It is also notable that utterances of this nature are commonly used in studies of third-party learning (e.g., Akhtar, 2005;Akhtar, Jipson, & Callanan, 2001;Herold & Akhtar, 2008;O'Doherty et al, 2011). Whether or not rates of imitation would drop if the demonstrating experimenter said nothing is a matter for future research.…”

“…This pattern of results highlights the pervasive nature of overimitation and young children's remarkable capacity for social learning. It also establishes, for the first time, that overimitation occurs robustly in third-party contexts in the absence of direct interaction, thereby adding to a growing body of literature documenting young children's ability to acquire novel object labels and actions via third-party processes (Akhtar, 2005;Akhtar et al, 2001;Floor & Akhtar, 2006;Herold & Akhtar, 2008;O'Doherty et al, 2011).…”

Neural correlates of observing joint actions with shared intentions

“…Also, observing two people sharing attention engages our own attention more so than when people are not in any apparent interaction (Boeckler, Knoblich & Sebanz, 2011). This enhanced level of attention in turn can facilitate learning, for example, of new words (Akhtar, 2005;O'Doherty et al, 2011) or of new actions (Herold & Akhtar, 2008;Nielsen, Moore & Mohhammedaly, 2012).…”