Infants' Understanding of Looking,Pointing, and Reaching as Cues to Goal-Directed Action

Phillips, Wellman, and Spelke (2002) provided experimental evidence indicating that by the age of 12 months infants use information about an adult's gaze-direction and emotional expression to predict action. We investigate the generality of this ability, using Phillips et al.'s paradigm across different referential gestures. If infants have a rich concept of people as intentional agents, they should encode the person-goal relation and predict action from a variety of referential gestures (such as looking and pointing), as well as from (goal-directed) reaching and grasping actions. Results of Studies 1 and 2 (within-subjects design) and Study 3 (between-subjects design) converge in indicating that Phillips et al.'s basic finding generalizes to reach-and-gaze as cue condition. In Study 3b generalization was demonstrated for point-and-gaze as cue condition. Whereas these findings suggest a general understanding of referential intent at 12 months, a control experiment (Study 4) showed that infants' action expectations could be reversed following a psychologically inconsistent habituation phase (actor points at Object A and subsequently picks up Object B) in the point-and-gaze condition, although no such reversal was obtained in the reach-and-gaze condition. These findings indicate that 1-year-old infants have well-established expectations about action goals signaled by an actor's gaze-direction and reaching and grasping movements but that an understanding of pointing as a cue to action intentions may develop later and follow a different route of acquisition.     

The Level of Detail in Infants' Word Learning

ABSTRACT— This article summarizes recent findings on infant word learning and recognition. Infants initially store very detailed representations of words, including details that are not truly necessary for word recognition. As they are exposed to more varied productions of words, they develop more sophisticated knowledge about which details are important, and streamline their representations, allowing them to better recognize words across different contexts, speakers, and environments.     

自闭症儿童利用社会性注意线索习得词语的眼动研究

本研究采用眼动技术考察18名自闭症儿童利用社会性注意线索习得词语的能力。结果表明：1）自闭症儿童具有利用他人视线习得词语的能力;2）不同视线对自闭症儿童的词语习得产生不同的影响;3）自闭症儿童视线追随行为的潜在机制与普通儿童存在差异,自闭症儿童的视线追随行为可能是意识性的诱发行为而普通儿童则是反射性的自发行为。     

自闭症谱系障碍儿童在多重线索下习得词语的眼动研究

本文利用眼动追踪技术在基线、一致和矛盾3种实验条件下考察感知觉线索和社会性线索在自闭症谱系障碍儿童词语习得中的相对作用。行为数据结果表明, 此类儿童在矛盾条件下选择枯燥物体作为新异词语的所指对象, 这说明社会性线索较之于感知觉线索具有优势作用; 而他们在基线和一致条件下选择有趣物体作为新异词语的所指对象, 且一致条件的词语习得成绩优于基线条件, 这说明社会性线索较之于感知觉线索具有促进作用。眼动数据结果表明, 此类儿童在脸部注视模式和视线追随行为上与普通儿童存在差异。这说明, 虽然社会性线索在此类儿童与普通儿童的词语习得中具有相同的相对作用, 但他们获取社会性信息的方式与普通儿童存在差异。     

婴幼儿词语习得中的社会性认知加工过程

有关婴幼儿词语习得的研究主要有三种理论假设:联想学习理论、制约限制理论和社会语用理论.本文将从以下四个方面着重介绍社会语用理论的相关研究:婴幼儿词语习得过程涉及哪些社会性认知加工过程,社会语用理论如何应对来自前两种理论的质疑和挑战,社会性认知加工过程的相对权重如何以及自闲症儿童词语习得存在怎样的社会性认知加工障碍.相关研究结果表明社会性认知加工过程在婴幼儿词语习得中具有基础性作用.最后对今后在该领域的研究中需要进一步深入探讨的问题提出了一些思考.     

Attention and Multistep Problem Solving in 24-Month-Old Children

The current study examined the role of increased attentional load in 24 month-old children's multistep problem-solving behavior. Children solved an object-based nonspatial working-memory search task, to which a motor component of varying difficulty was added. Significant disruptions in search performance were observed with the introduction of the motor component, but the expected differential interference effects based on task difficulty were largely absent. The primary costs to search performance seem to be incurred as the addition of an intermediate subgoal overtaxes working memory through increased goal-monitoring demands, independent of its difficulty.     

Emotional Reliance and Social Loss: Effects on Depressive Symptomatology

A reactive form of dependence has been proposed to occur when a person is undergoing a period of substantial stress and change. The present study assessed 114 psychiatric inpatients categorized according to the presence or absence of social loss and their level of emotional reliance on others. Both emotional reliance and social loss were related to a variety of depressive symptoms. A significant interaction was observed between emotional reliance and social loss on depression severity as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). In general, subjects high in emotional reliance but experiencing no social loss displayed higher levels of depression than emotionally reliant subjects who had undergone a social loss. Patients reporting high emotional reliance on others, in the aftermath of a social loss, may be reacting to the loss and suffer from less-severe and less-chronic pathology. Subjects reporting excessive emotional reliance in the absence of any precipitating exit event may be displaying more of a trait-like pathology. Personality disorder pathology should occur with such frequency and intensity so it can be observed even when obvious eliciting stimuli are absent.     

Non-Linguistic Grammar Learning by 12-Month-Old Infants: Evidence for Constraints on Learning

ABSTRACT

Infants acquiring their native language are adept at discovering grammatical patterns. However, it remains unknown whether these learning abilities are limited to language, or available more generally for sequenced input. The current study is a conceptual replication of a prior language study, and was designed to ask whether infants can track phrase structure-like patterns from nonlinguistic auditory materials (sequences of computer alert sounds). One group of 12-month-olds was familiarized with an artificial grammar including predictive dependencies between sounds concatenated into strings, simulating the basic structure of phrases in natural languages. A second group of infants was familiarized with a grammar that lacked predictive dependencies. All infants were tested on the same set of familiar strings vs. novel (grammar-inconsistent) strings. Only infants exposed to the materials containing predictive dependencies showed successful discrimination between the test sentences, replicating the results from linguistic materials, and suggesting that predictive dependencies facilitate learning from nonlinguistic input.     

Abstract Rule Learning in 11- and 14-Month-Old Infants

This study tests the hypothesis that distributional information can guide infants in the generalization of word order movement rules at the initial stage of language acquisition. Participants were 11- and 14-month-old infants. Stimuli were sentences in Russian, a language that was unknown to our infants. During training the word order of each sentence was transformed following a consistent pattern (e.g., ABC–BAC). During the test phase infants heard novel sentences that respected the trained rule and ones that violated the trained rule (i.e., a different transformation such as ABC–ACB). Stimuli words had highly variable phonological and morphological shapes. The cue available was the positional information of words and their non-adjacent relations across sentences. We found that 14-month-olds, but not 11-month-olds, showed evidence of abstract rule generalization to novel instances. The implications of this finding to early syntactic acquisition are discussed.     

Word Learning and Attention Allocation Based on Word Class and Category Knowledge

Attention allocation in word learning may vary developmentally based on the novelty of the object. It has been suggested that children differentially learn verbs based on the novelty of the agent, but adults do not because they automatically infer the object's category and thus treat it like a familiar object. The current research examined whether adults and children differentially learn words or attend to objects without access to category knowledge in a relatively difficult (Experiment 1, adult n = 54, child n = 66) and a relatively easy task (Experiment 2, adult n = 88, child n = 62). Results show that category knowledge affects noun and verb extension for children but not adults and that adults similarly attended to objects when learning a verb regardless of category knowledge. These findings highlight the importance of investigating how word class, attention allocation, and categorical inference interact across development. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emergent Goal-Anticipatory Gaze in Infants via Event-Predictive Learning and Inference

From about 7 months of age onward, infants start to reliably fixate the goal of an observed action, such as a grasp, before the action is complete. The available research has identified a variety of factors that influence such goal-anticipatory gaze shifts, including the experience with the shown action events and familiarity with the observed agents. However, the underlying cognitive processes are still heavily debated. We propose that our minds (i) tend to structure sensorimotor dynamics into probabilistic, generative event-predictive, and event boundary predictive models, and, meanwhile, (ii) choose actions with the objective to minimize predicted uncertainty. We implement this proposition by means of event-predictive learning and active inference. The implemented learning mechanism induces an inductive, event-predictive bias, thus developing schematic encodings of experienced events and event boundaries. The implemented active inference principle chooses actions by aiming at minimizing expected future uncertainty. We train our system on multiple object-manipulation events. As a result, the generation of goal-anticipatory gaze shifts emerges while learning about object manipulations: the model starts fixating the inferred goal already at the start of an observed event after having sampled some experience with possible events and when a familiar agent (i.e., a hand) is involved. Meanwhile, the model keeps reactively tracking an unfamiliar agent (i.e., a mechanical claw) that is performing the same movement. We qualitatively compare these modeling results to behavioral data of infants and conclude that event-predictive learning combined with active inference may be critical for eliciting goal-anticipatory gaze behavior in infants.     

词切分对日-汉双语者汉语阅读影响的眼动研究

以24名日-汉双语者为被试, 采用EyeLink2000眼动仪, 通过两个实验来探讨词切分对日-汉双语者汉语句子阅读的影响。实验一采用四种词切分方式：正常条件、词间空格条件、非词空格条件和字间空格条件。为了确保四种词切分条件下句子的空间分布一致, 实验二采用灰条标记作为字、词或非词的边界。结果发现：(1)在总体和局部分析中, 词间空格条件下平均注视时间显著少于正常条件; 非词空格和字间空格条件下的阅读时间更长、注视次数更多。(2)在总体分析中, 总句子阅读时间和总注视次数在正常条件和词间空格条件中差异不显著; 局部分析中, 词间空格条件比正常条件下的阅读时间更短、注视次数更少。表明日-汉双语者在阅读词间空格文本和正常文本一样容易; 词切分对日-汉双语者汉语阅读的词汇识别有促进作用; 在汉语阅读中, 词是重要的加工单位。     

Landmark Stability: Further Studies Pointing to a Role in Spatial Learning

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the possible role of landmark stability in spatial learning. Rats were trained to search in a large arena for food hidden at a consistent distance and direction from either a single radially symmetric landmark or an array of two landmarks. We varied the relative degree to which the landmark array and/or the cues of the training context predicted the location of food, without varying the conditional probability of food being available given either cue. Experiment 1 used vestibular disorientation to ensure control of search location by experimenter-controlled cues. The results showed that making either a single landmark or a cluster of two adjacent landmarks the sole spatial predictor of reward location reduced the accuracy of search compared to a condition where both the landmark array and context cues were reliable spatial predictors. Varying global landmark stability had no effect when training was conducted using an array of two landmarks located some distance from each other. Context cues, when tested alone, triggered very little searching in appropriate locations, and the absolute magnitude of control over search was insufficient to account for the superiority of stable landmarks. The better learning with a stable landmark, and the dependence of this effect on the geometrical arrangement of landmarks, points to the conditions of spatial learning involving additional principles to those of simple associative conditioning. Experiment 2 examined landmark stability using a single landmark and fixed directional cues in the absence of vestibular disorientation. This also revealed a relative advantage of landmark stability, but animals with a landmark that moved from trial to trial did show some evidence of learning. Context cues when tested alone had minimal influence. Parametric manipulation of landmark stability offers a novel way of influencing spatial learning and thus understanding better the process through which egocentric representations of perceived space are transformed into allocentric representations of the real world. The purpose of this paper is to describe two experiments concerned with identifying the psychological processes of allocentric spatial learning. The results point to the idea that landmark stability is an important factor in spatial learning. Specifically, they reveal that whether or not a landmark will be used for the purpose of representing the location of another object (including hidden objects) is influenced by whether it is perceived as geometrically stable with respect to at least one other landmark and/or certain geometric features of the environment. This phenomenon is relevant to the application of associative learning principles to the spatial domain.     

An Attentional Goldilocks Effect: An Optimal Amount of Social Interactivity Promotes Word Learning From Video

Television can be a powerful education tool; however, content makers must understand the factors that engage attention and promote learning from screen media. Prior research has suggested that social engagement is critical for learning and that interactivity may enhance the educational quality of children’s media. The present study examined the effects of increasing the social interactivity of television on children’s visual attention and word learning. Three- to 5-year-old (M_age = 4;5, SD = 9 months) children completed a task in which they viewed videos of an actress teaching them the Swahili label for an on-screen image. Each child viewed these video clips in 4 conditions that parametrically manipulated social engagement and interactivity. We then tested whether each child had successfully learned the Swahili labels. Though 5-year-old children were able to learn words in all conditions, we found that there was an optimal level of social engagement that best supported learning for all participants, defined by engaging the child but not distracting from word labeling. Our eye-tracking data indicated that children in this condition spent more time looking at the target image and less time looking at the actress’s face as compared with the most interactive condition. These findings suggest that social interactivity is critical to engaging attention and promoting learning from screen media up until a certain point, after which social stimuli may draw attention away from target images and impair children’s word learning.     

Transformed Social Interaction,Augmented Gaze,and Social Influence in Immersive Virtual Environments

Immersive collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are simulations in which geographically separated individuals interact in a shared, three‐dimensional, digital space using immersive virtual environment technology. Unlike videoconference technology, which transmits direct video streams, immersive CVEs accurately track movements of interactants and render them nearly simultaneously (i.e., in real time) onto avatars, three‐dimensional digital representations of the interactants. Nonverbal behaviors of interactants can be rendered veridically or transformed strategically (i.e., rendered nonveridically). This research examined augmented gaze, a transformation in which a given interactant's actual head movements are transformed by an algorithm that renders his or her gaze directly at multiple interactants simultaneously, such that each of the others perceives that the transformed interactant is gazing only at him or her. In the current study, a presenter read a persuasive passage to two listeners under various transformed gaze conditions, including augmented gaze. Results showed that women agreed with a persuasive message more during augmented gaze than other gaze conditions. Men recalled more verbal information from the passage than women. Implications for theories of social interaction and computer‐mediated communication are discussed.     

Seeking Social Connectedness: Interdependent Self-Construal and Impression Formation Using Photographic Cues of Social Connectedness

ABSTRACT

Impression formation research has traditionally focused on either the characteristics of the target or of the participant, failing to examine their interplay. In the present study, we explored the role of interdependent self-construal on ratings of others who are portrayed as alone or connected. We hypothesized that participants with an interdependent view of the self would prefer others who are portrayed as socially connected, while the opposite would be true for participants low on interdependence. Results showed that college students high on interdependence rated a university professor photographed with another person relatively more positively than a professor photographed alone. This pattern was reversed for participants low on interdependence.     

外在暗示线索对学习者在多媒体学习中自我调节学习过程的影响

考察139名五、七年级学生在逐次阅读10组图文材料的过程中对阅读测试与媒体信息的关系的自我监察并据此对阅读时间分配模式的自我调节过程,结果发现：（1）二年级被试能够监察阅读测试和图文之间的相倚关系,并据此对图文阅读时间分配模式进行自我调节,分配更多时间在与测试相关的材料上;（2）五、七年级被试的图文时间分配均呈现逐步调节的模式。（3）七年级被试比五年级被试对阅读测试与图文的关系的监察更为准确、时间分配模式调节出现的时机更早,时间分配调节策略的使用更合理,测试成绩更高。     

Call for papers: Peirce and Education: The Conflicting Processes of Learning and Discovery

Call for Papers

Call for papers: Peirce and Education: The Conflicting Processes of Learning and Discovery     

掌握程度和社会性线索对元认知监控的影响

元认知监控中信心判断和再认答案的调整不仅受到个体学习后掌握程度的影响,还会受到社会性线索的影响。本研究通过两个实验,考察了掌握程度和社会性线索对元认知监测和控制的影响。研究发现：第一,掌握程度和社会性线索独立影响元认知监测。第二,掌握程度和社会性线索显著影响元认知控制,并且掌握程度还起到了调节作用。具体来说,掌握程度高时,个体倾向于坚持自己的最初选择,较少受到社会性线索的影响;掌握程度越低,社会性线索的影响越大,个体倾向于使自己的选择与社会性信息保持一致。最后,研究总结了学习任务中掌握程度和社会性线索对元认知监控的影响机制,并提出了未来的研究思路。