181 research outputs found
Attention to Shared Perceptual Features Influences Early Noun-Concept Processing
No full textRecent modeling work shows that patterns of shared perceptual features relate to the group-level order of acquisition of early-learned words (Peters & Borovsky, 2019). Here we present results for two eye-tracked word recognition studies showing patterns of shared perceptual features likewise influence processing of known and novel noun-concepts in individual 24- to 30-monthold toddlers. In the first study (Chapter 2, N=54), we explored the influence of perceptual connectivity on both initial attentional biases to known objects and subsequent label processing. In the second study (Chapter 3, N=49), we investigated whether perceptual connectivity influences patterns of attention during learning opportunities for novel object-features and object-labels, subsequent pre-labeling attentional biases, and object-label learning outcomes. Results across studies revealed four main findings. First, patterns of shared (visual-motion and visual-form and surface) perceptual features do relate to differences in early noun-concept processing at the individual level. Second, such influences are tentatively at play from the outset of novel noun-concept learning. Third, connectivity driven attentional biases to both recently learned and well-known objects follow a similar timecourse and show similar patterns of individual differences. Fourth, initial, pre-labeling attentional biases to objects relate to subsequent label processing, but do not linearly explain effects of connectivity. Finally, we consider whether these findings provide support for shared-feature-guided selective attention to object features as a mechanism underlying early lexico-semantic development
The Factor Structure of Parents’ Math-Related Talk and its Relation to Children’s Early Academic Skills
No full textEarly math skills, including numeracy and mathematical language (e.g., “less” and “a few”), are essential for later academic achievement. Children’s mathematical language knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of numeracy skills before kindergarten, suggesting that early exposure to math language is necessary. However, little work is focused on understanding how children are exposed to mathematical language within their early learning environments (e.g., while interacting with parents). The objective of this study was to investigate different constructs of parents’ talk (i.e., general talk, number talk, mathematical language) during math-related activity engagement with young children and examine how parents’ talk relates to children’s general vocabulary, numeracy skills, and mathematical language knowledge. Findings indicate that parents’ talk was best represented by a general talk, number talk, and mathematical language factor. Parents’ talk factors were not significantly related to their respective child outcomes (i.e., general vocabulary, numeracy skills, and mathematical language knowledge). However, parents used more general language when their children had higher numeracy skills but used more mathematical language when they had lower numeracy skills. This study provides initial evidence that parents’ number talk and mathematical language use are distinct constructs of parents’ talk that may expose children to different aspects of mathematical understanding
Visual processing strategies underlying expertise in the fusiform face area and lateral occipital cortex
No full textHuman face processing is an important and fascinating function. Recent neuroimaging studies of face processing have focused on the ‘fusiform face area’ (FFA) in the ventral visual stream, and on three conflicting hypotheses about its true function: (1) that it is a region specialized for processing the category of faces; (2) that it is a region specialized for the process of visual expertise; and (3) that its response is highly functionally heterogeneous and its function is shared with other areas in high-level visual cortex. In Experiment 1, the FFA’s response to 4 categories was investigated using high-resolution fMRI and multi-voxel pattern analysis/pattern detection (MVPA/PD), and was found to contain information for all object categories, which argues against (1) and supports (3). Next, (2) was investigated in the FFA and lateral occipital cortex (LOC) which is implicated in novice visual processing. Shortcomings of existing studies on (2) were
eliminated by defining the vague term “visual expertise” in terms of known visual processes, local and holistic processing, which are theorized to be components of visual expertise and novice processing. The fMRI responses to differential levels of local and holistic processing were investigated using MVPA/PD analyses. Experiments 2 and 3 used the other-race effect in combination with each of two manipulations, an inversion and a composite task. Experiment 4 used cars, an object of expertise which evoked behavioral effects of holistic processing. Experiment 5 provided a direct contrast of local vs. holistic processing. Three types of fMRI analysis (mean ROI analysis, spatial general linear model (GLM) analysis, and generalization accuracy of classifiers) were used to compare the manipulations of local and holistic processing in the FFA and LOC. Behavior revealed a
rarely-found car inversion effect. GLM’s revealed separate subclusters responsive to all conditions. Analyses showed strong preferences for a condition within subjects, but the preferred condition was not consistent across subjects. No evidence supported the FFA and LOC being specialized for visual processes; in fact, both areas were involved in local and holistic processing approximately equally. The results showed functional heterogeneity with respect to both object category and visual process, supporting (3).Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Arielle Schmid
Cohabiting isn’t what it used to be
No full textArielle Kuperberg, Assistant Professor of Sociology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is author of this week’s briefing report at CCF@TSP. Here she answers the questions that keep coming up when people talk about cohabitation these days
Feats: A database of semantic features for early-produced noun concepts
No full textLLAMA Lab Feature Production Norm
Dataset for Vocabulary size and structure affects real-time lexico-semantic recognition in 18-month-olds
No full textDataset includes fixations binned into two time windows: Label2000 time window is from 0-2000 ms post label onset, used for timecourse plotting. Acc1700 is the window between 300-2000 ms post-label onset used for statistical analyses
Feats: A database of semantic features for early-produced noun concepts
No full textLLAMA Lab Feature Production Norm
When slowing down processing helps learning: Lexico-semantic structure supports retention but interferes with disambiguation of novel object-label mappings
No full textThis project explores how children disambiguate and retain novel object-label mappings in the face of semantic similarity. Burgeoning evidence suggests that semantic structure in the developing lexicon promotes word learning in ostensive contexts, while other findings indicate that semantic similarity interferes and temporarily slows familiar word recognition. This project explores how these distinct processes interact when mapping and retaining labels for novel objects (i.e. low-frequency objects that are unfamiliar to toddlers) via disambiguation from a semantically-similar familiar referent in 24-month-olds (N=65). Toddlers’ log-adjusted looking to labeled target objects (relative to distractor objects) was measured in three conditions: Familiar trials (familiar label spoken while viewing semantically related familiar and novel objects), Disambiguation trials (unfamiliar label spoken while viewing semantically similar familiar and unfamiliar object), and Retention trials (unfamiliar label spoken while viewing novel object pairs). Toddlers’ individual vocabulary structure was then compared to performance on each condition. Vocabulary structure was measured at two levels: category-level structure (semantic density) for experimental items, and lexicon-level structure (global clustering coefficient). The findings suggest, consistent with prior results, that semantic density interfered with known word recognition, and facilitated unfamiliar word retention. Children did not show a significant novel word preference during disambiguation, and disambiguation behavior was not impacted by semantic structure. These findings connect seemingly disparate mechanisms of semantic interference in processing and semantic leveraging in word learning. Semantic interference momentarily slows word recognition and resolution of referential uncertainty for novel label-object mappings. Nevertheless, this slowing might support retention by enabling comparison between related objects
Recommended from our members
Word learning in context : the role of lifetime language input and sentential context
No full textOur experience with words defines how we understand them. In this dissertation, I examine how two kinds of experience influence how words are learned-that of "global" lifetime language experience, and "local" experience from immediate linguistic context. Computational simulations are used in the first set of experiments to simulate a variety of early language learning environments that vary in amount, frequency, complexity of linguistic input. Brainwave experiments are used in the second set of studies to probe the neural and cognitive correlates of word learning from sentential context. The first set of studies are computational simulations that explore how differences in linguistic experience can explain differences in word learning ability and organization of semantic knowledge. We varied the amount of language input, sentential complexity, and the frequency distribution of words within categories. In each simulation, improvements in category structure were tightly correlated with subsequent improvements in word learning ability. These simulations suggest that vast differences in lexical proficiency in children can at least partly be explained by differences in early language environments and underlying cognitive abilities like categorization. The second set of studies explore how local experience influences single-shot word learning in a series of three brainwave studies. Adult participants read known and unknown words in high and low constraint sentences and then made plausibility judgments on their usage in subsequent sentences, or saw these words again as primes in a semantic priming task. These studies found that participants were able to integrate knowledge about the meaning and usage of unknown words that initially appeared in highly constraining contexts, but not low constraint contexts. In addition, a lateralized version of the semantic priming probe task revealed that the right hemisphere initially participates in the semantic priming of novel words. Together these studies highlight the importance of experience in acquisition of word meaning, and reveal that the brain is able to quickly acquire significant and sophisticated information about word meanings after only a single instance. In addition, these studies suggest a method by which lexical acquisition can be measured via electrical brain activit
- …
