Less is More: How manipulative features affect children's learning from picture books

Picture books are ubiquitous in young children's lives and are assumed to support children's acquisition of information about the world. Given their importance, relatively little research has directly examined children's learning from picture books. We report two studies examining children's acquisition of labels and facts from picture books that vary on two dimensions: iconicity of the pictures and presence of manipulative features (or "pop-ups"). In Study 1, 20-month-old children generalized novel labels less well when taught from a book with manipulative features than from standard picture books without such elements. In Study 2, 30- and 36-month-old children learned fewer facts when taught from a manipulative picture book with drawings than from a standard picture book with realistic images and no manipulative features. The results of the two studies indicate that children's learning from picture books is facilitated by realistic illustrations, but impeded by manipulative features.     

Do objects of different weight fall at the same time? Updating naive beliefs about free-falling objects from fictional and informational books in young children

This study examined whether children 4- and 5-years-old (N = 156) can revise a physical science misconception from different types of picture books. A realistic fiction book and informational book with identical images matched in word count and reading difficulty level were compared to a control book about plants. In the pretest and posttest, children were asked to make predictions about pairs of objects that either had the same or different weight. The pretest scores showed that many children began with the misconception that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. Posttest scores revealed that children revised this misconception after reading the realistic fiction and informational picture books but not after reading the control book. These findings provide evidence that children as young as age 4 can acquire physical science knowledge from picture books and that both realistic fiction and informational books can be used effectively to expose children to science concepts.     

Factors affecting children's graphic symbol use in the third year: Language,similarity, and iconicity

The question addressed in this study is whether the claim that children understand the symbolic status of pictures by the middle of their third year is an overestimate of their ability. Specifically, we asked whether children use language if possible to facilitate their performance in graphic symbolic tasks. Language (availability of verbal labels) was manipulated along with iconicity (degree of resemblance between symbol and referent) and perceptual similarity (between choice items) in a series of four experiments. Children 2.5 and 3 years old were presented with a graphic symbol for 4 s and immediately asked to choose the object depicted (referent) from two choice objects. In Study 1, degree of iconicity between picture and referent was varied and both choice objects had the same verbal label. The 2.5-year-olds failed to use any pictures or replicas as symbols. The 3-year-olds performed well with all types of symbols and better with highly iconic symbols. In Study 2, verbal label availability was manipulated by presenting choice objects having the same or different labels and by varying familiarity of labels. The 2.5-year-olds performed at chance when verbal labels were unavailable but above chance when they were available. The 3-year-olds were above chance in all conditions but performed less well when verbal labels were unavailable. Study 3 confirmed that young children use language to mediate picture symbol use. When 2.5-year-olds were provided with subordinate verbal labels in the matching task, subsequent performance was good even when choice objects had the same basic level verbal label. In Study 4, verbal label availability was contrasted with perceptual similarity between choice objects. When verbal labels could be used and choice objects were dissimilar, performance was best, and when verbal labels could not be used and choice objects were similar, it was worst. The results suggest that children's developing understanding of the symbolic function of pictures is tenuous in the third year, and is supported by their use of verbal labels.     

Generalization of learning from picture books to novel test conditions by 18- and 24-month-old children

Researchers know little about whether very young children can recognize objects originally introduced to them in a picture book when they encounter similar looking objects in various real-world contexts. The present studies used an imitation procedure to explore young children's ability to generalize a novel action sequence from a picture book to novel test conditions. The authors found that 18-month-olds imitated the action sequence from a book only when the conditions at testing matched those at encoding; altering the test stimuli or context disrupted imitation (Experiment 1A). In contrast, the 24-month-olds imitated the action sequence with changes to both the test context and stimuli (Experiment 1B). Moreover, although the 24-month-olds exhibited deferred imitation with no changes to the test conditions, they did not defer imitation with changes to the context and stimuli (Experiment 2). Two factors may account for the pattern of results: age-related changes in children's ability to utilize novel retrieval cues as well as their emerging ability to understand the representational nature of pictures.     

Very young children are insensitive to picture- but not object-orientation

In two experiments on very young children's response to the orientation of pictures and objects, 18-, 24- and 30-month-old children showed no preference for upright pictures over inverted ones. More importantly, we found that children in all three age groups were equally accurate and equally fast at identifying depicted objects regardless of orientation. These studies further established that young children's insensitivity to picture orientation does not extend to objects. These results, in combination with the earlier ones, indicate that only gradually do young children come to share the picture orientation preference of adults and older children and that their adoption of the orientation convention is not based on changes in their ability to process upright and inverted images.     

The role of representational status and item complexity in parent–child conversations about pictures and objects

Mother–child conversations about pictures systematically differ from mother–child conversations about objects: Pictures are more likely than objects to elicit talk about kinds, whereas objects are more likely than pictures to elicit talk about individuals. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether this difference between pictures and objects is explained by differences in item complexity. Mothers and their 4-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: simple or complex. In each condition, participants viewed 12 toy objects and 12 pictures, matched for content. The items were either highly detailed (complex condition) or very plain (simple condition). Replicating previous research, mothers and children provided relatively more focus on kinds when talking about pictures, and relatively more focus on individuals when talking about objects. The current results go further, however, to demonstrate that this effect is independent of the items’ complexity. We therefore propose that the picture–object difference is not due to low-level differences in amount of perceptual detail provided, but rather is due to the greater ease with which pictures serve as representations [DeLoache, J. S. (1991). Symbolic functioning in very young children: Understanding of pictures and models. Child Development, 62, 736–752]. These data indicate the ways in which a fundamental conceptual distinction between kinds and individuals arises in different linguistic expressions and in different contexts.     

Imagery, encoding specificity, and prose recall in 6-year-old children

Partial pictures depict only selected portions of prose passages. Partial pictures hypothetically aid retention by inducing young children to generate imagery for nonpictured prose. Results from two hundred eighty-eight 6-year-old children indicated that (a) partial pictures at study facilitate recall, (b) identical study and retrieval prompts facilitate recall, and (c) imagery instructions and training do not affect retention. Partial pictures apparently help children to encode information more efficiently at study, but there is no evidence that young children generate images with the aid of the partial picture cues, nor that they have a retrieval deficit for these images as suggested by M. Ruch and J. Levin.     

4～6岁幼儿对口语和文字信息的信任及运用

研究以混合物分类为实验任务,探讨在面对口语和文字两种信息时,4~6岁中国幼儿的信任特点,在信任任务之后的即时和延时两个时间点上考察幼儿对所信任信息的运用,以及分析阅读水平对幼儿信息信任和运用的影响。研究结果表明:(1)4~6岁中国幼儿对不同类型信息都表现出高度信任,相较于口语信息,阅读水平高的幼儿表现出对文字信息的信任偏好;(2)幼儿在后续任务中较少运用所信任的信息,随着时间的推移,幼儿运用的口语信息持续减少,但文字信息的运用呈现先降后升的特点;(3)阅读水平在不同时间点上影响幼儿对所信任信息的运用,阅读水平低的幼儿在短时间内更多地运用口语信息,而阅读水平高的幼儿在更长时间里显著更多地使用文字信息。未来研究应进一步探究文字意识对幼儿文字信息信任和后续运用的作用。     

The origins of pictorial competence

Pictorial competence , which refers to the many factors involved in perceiving, interpreting, understanding, and using pictures, develops gradually over the first few years of life. Although experience is not required for accurate perception of pictures, it is necessary for understanding the nature of pictures. Infants initially respond to depicted objects as if they were real objects, and toddlers are remarkably insensitive to picture orientation. Only gradually do young children figure out the nature of pictures and how they are used.     

Words,shape, visual search and visual working memory in 3‐year‐old children

Do words cue children's visual attention, and if so, what are the relevant mechanisms? Across four experiments, 3‐year‐old children (N = 163) were tested in visual search tasks in which targets were cued with only a visual preview versus a visual preview and a spoken name. The experiments were designed to determine whether labels facilitated search times and to examine one route through which labels could have their effect: By influencing the visual working memory representation of the target. The targets and distractors were pictures of instances of basic‐level known categories and the labels were the common name for the target category. We predicted that the label would enhance the visual working memory representation of the target object, guiding attention to objects that better matched the target representation. Experiments 1 and 2 used conjunctive search tasks, and Experiment 3 varied shape discriminability between targets and distractors. Experiment 4 compared the effects of labels to repeated presentations of the visual target, which should also influence the working memory representation of the target. The overall pattern fits contemporary theories of how the contents of visual working memory interact with visual search and attention, and shows that even in very young children heard words affect the processing of visual information.     

Toddlers’ referential understanding of pictures

Pictures are referential in that they can represent objects in the real world. Here we explore the emergence of understanding of the referential potential of pictures during the second year of life. In Study 1, 15-, 18-, and 24-month-olds learned a word for a picture of a novel object (e.g., “blicket”) in the context of a picture book interaction. Later they were presented with the picture of a blicket along with the real object it depicted and asked to indicate the blicket. Many of the 24-, 18-, and even 15-month-olds indicated the real object as an instance of a blicket, consistent with an understanding of the referential relation between pictures and objects. In Study 2, children were tested with an exemplar object that differed in color from the depicted object to determine whether they would extend the label they had learned for the depicted object to a slightly different category member. The 15-, 18-, and 24-month-old participants failed to make a consistent referential response. The results are discussed in terms of whether pictorial understanding at this age is associative or symbolic.     

自读、伴读和指读对2~3岁幼儿图画书阅读中文字注视的影响

幼儿对文字的关注是内化文字形式和功能（文字意识）的基本途径,如何有效提高年幼儿童对文字的关注是一个具有重要实践意义的课题。本研究以54名2~3岁幼儿为研究对象,记录和分析幼儿在自读、伴读和指读三种方式下阅读图画书的眼动行为。结果发现：1）自读和伴读方式下,2~3岁幼儿对文字和图画的关注具有相同的眼动模式,并且对文字的关注程度均较低;2）指读可显著提高幼儿对文字的关注频率,同时对文字注视时间、次数以及关注速度均表现出一定的促进作用;3）对图画的整体分析显示,指读与伴读/自读方式之间的眼动模式差异不显著;而进一步对图画的局部分析表明：指读不影响幼儿图画关注的全面性和有效性。综上所述,指读在一定程度上能够促进年幼儿童对文字的关注,同时动态手势也不抢占儿童阅读图画的注意资源。     

Are there developmental differences in reality-monitoring?

The question addressed by the present experiment is whether the ability to distinguish between veridical and imaginal memory representations changes with age. Second-grade, fourth-grade, and sixth grade children (8, 10, and 12 years old) and college students were shown pictures of familiar objects. Each picture was presented one, two, or three times and, interspersed with these presentations, subjects were asked to imagine each picture zero, one, or three times. Subsequently they were asked to judge the presentation frequency of each picture. For all groups, imagining the pictures resulted in inflated estimates of event frequency. However, contrary to the idea that children have a particularly difficult time discriminating externally generated from internally generated memories, one analysis indicated adults were actually somewhat more affected than children by the imagination trials.     

内隐重复效应影响外显工作记忆的年龄差异

采用延迟样本匹配任务并控制被试对部分项目的有意识学习经验, 当前研究考察了老年被试与青年被试在追逐靶、排除分心物的过程中, 重复启动效应如何受到项目外显学习经验的影响。老年被试和青年被试首先学习一些物体图片, 这些熟悉的图片与一些新图片作为之后工作记忆任务的靶或分心物。结果发现, 老年被试与青年被试在追逐靶和排除分心物的过程中均受到项目之前学习经验的影响。无论是老年被试还是青年被试, 对靶的反应时均快于对分心物的反应时, 对外显学习过的靶(即熟悉靶)的反应时快于对未学习过的靶(即新靶)的反应时, 而拒绝熟悉的分心物需要的时间长于拒绝新分心物的时间。其次, 老年被试与青年被试均表现出对靶的重复效应, 即当靶(无论是熟悉的还是新的)在任务中重复出现时, 对其的反应时加快; 然而, 对分心物的重复效应显著减小。随着项目多次重复, 重复效应整体上减小, 但该效应的变化受到项目属性(靶或分心物)以及项目之前学习经验的影响。重要的是, 当熟悉的分心物反复出现时, 老年被试不但没有出现重复效应, 反而在拒绝该熟悉分心物上表现出困难, 反应时显著延长, 而在青年被试上没有该表现。这些结果说明, 老年被试的工作记忆任务成绩容易受到内隐熟悉性的干扰, 重复出现的干扰项产生的熟悉性使得老年被试难以拒绝。     

TRANSFER BETWEEN RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE LANGUAGE IN DEVELOPMENT ALLY DISABLED CHILDREN

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between receptive and productive language acquisition in developmentally disabled children. A single-subject operant methodology was employed to evaluate the effect of training in one mode on performance in the other mode. Noun labels for pictured objects were used as the unit of analysis. Six children with severe language deficits participated in the experiment. Each subject learning to identify a different set of five pictures in each of four successively administered training conditions. In the first condition, a set of pictures was trained in the productive mode. In the second condition, a different set was trained in the receptive mode. These training conditions were then repeated using two additional sets of pictures. Training was done using reinforcement for correct responses and prompting for incorrect responses. Nonreinforced probes were conducted throughout training to assess performance in the untrained mode. The pictures in each set were trained successively so that transfer across the language modes could be studied separately for each response trained. All subjects successfully met the criteria for learning each picture set in both the receptive and productive training conditions. The probe data showed that opposite-modality performance improved as a function of both types of training, although performance levels differed. After productive training, five of six subjects' performance was highly accurate on receptive probes. By contrast, receptive training resulted in limited correct productive performance. Transfer from receptive training was negatively related to subjects' use of extra-experimental labels on productive probe trials. In addition to these competing response errors, subjects frequently made articulation errors. The findings suggest that for retarded children similar to those studied here, productive training will be sufficient to establish accurate receptive performance on vocabulary tasks. However, receptive training does not appear to be either a necessary or a sufficient condition for productive performance. The results do not support the reception-then-production training sequence based on normal language development.     

Picture book reading with young children: A conceptual framework

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize research on picture book reading with young children (i.e., children under the age of 3). In this paper, we review cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention reading research and describe changes in both parental and children’s behaviors during picture book reading from birth to age 3. Research related to additional factors that impact picture book reading between parents and their children such as parental characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status), children’s characteristics (e.g., interest in books), and attachment status is also reviewed. Such factors are proposed to influence the frequency and/or quality of reading interactions and the beneficial outcomes of reading on children’s language development. Throughout the paper, we highlight gaps in the existing literature. From our synthesis, we propose a theoretical framework to guide future research involving reading with young children.     

Do separate processes identify objects as exemplars versus members of basic-level categories? Evidence from hemispheric specialization

When an object is identified as a specific exemplar, is it analyzed differently than when it is identified at the basic level? On the basis of a previous theory, we predicted that the left hemisphere (LH) is specialized for classifying objects at the basic level and the right hemisphere (RH) is specialized for classifying objects as specific exemplars. To test this prediction, participants were asked to view lateralized pictures of animals, artifacts, and faces of famous people; immediately after each picture was presented, a label was read aloud by the computer, and the participants decided whether the label was correct for that picture. A label could name the object at either the basic level (e.g., bird) or as an exemplar (e.g., robin). As predicted, we found that basic-level labels were matched faster when pictures were presented in the right visual field (and hence encoded initially in the LH), whereas exemplar labels were matched faster when pictures were presented in the left visual field (and hence encoded initially in the RH).     

The evocative power of words: activation of concepts by verbal and nonverbal means

A major part of learning a language is learning to map spoken words onto objects in the environment. An open question is what are the consequences of this learning for cognition and perception? Here, we present a series of experiments that examine effects of verbal labels on the activation of conceptual information as measured through picture verification tasks. We find that verbal cues, such as the word "cat," lead to faster and more accurate verification of congruent objects and rejection of incongruent objects than do either nonverbal cues, such as the sound of a cat meowing, or words that do not directly refer to the object, such as the word "meowing." This label advantage does not arise from verbal labels being more familiar or easier to process than other cues, and it does extends to newly learned labels and sounds. Despite having equivalent facility in learning associations between novel objects and labels or sounds, conceptual information is activated more effectively through verbal means than through nonverbal means. Thus, rather than simply accessing nonverbal concepts, language activates aspects of a conceptual representation in a particularly effective way. We offer preliminary support that representations activated via verbal means are more categorical and show greater consistency between subjects. These results inform the understanding of how human cognition is shaped by language and hint at effects that different patterns of naming can have on conceptual structure.     

Processing global information in briefly presented pictures

Summary The effect on object recognition of the processing of the global information in contextually coherent scenes was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1 subjects saw 100 ms presentations of line drawings containing objects that were either usual or unusual given the picture context. Following each exposure they were required to select from among four objects the one that had been contained in the scene. The consistency of the three distractor alternatives with the meaning of the picture was varied. Recognition accuracy was poor for unusual objects and when the distractors were consistent with the picture meaning and did not substantially differ from the performance of subjects who selected response alternatives after being provided with a theme of the picture, without actually viewing the pictures. This supports the conclusion that subjects were responding on the basis of the global information but not the local object information in the pictures. When the exposure duration was increased to 2 s (Experiment 2), processing of local information was apparent for both usual and unusual objects but effects of the global information were still evident.     

Picture superiority in free recall: The effects of organization and elaboration

A conception of semantic memory structure is presented in which elaboration is considered to vary both between and within items. Pictures and their verbal labels are suggested to activate common abstract memory representations, but these activations will differ in their degree of within-item elaboration. However, pictures and words should show comparable between-item elaboration properties, such as might be revealed by the category-recall relationship and clustering in free recall. Children were presented pictures and words in either a category-recall situation, where between-item elaboration was emphasized, or in a control situation where between-item elaboration was minimized. No differences between pictures and words in either recall or clustering were found in the category-recall task. However, when the same items were presented in the control situation the typical picture superiority effect in free recall was found. The results are interpreted as consistent with a two-factor theory of semantic elaboration, and indicate that these basic properties of memory encoding hold even for young children.