Infant sustained attention but not joint attention to objects at 9 months predicts vocabulary at 12 and 15 months

Vocabulary differences early in development are highly predictive of later language learning as well as achievement in school. Early word learning emerges in the context of tightly coupled social interactions between the early learner and a mature partner. In the present study, we develop and apply a novel paradigm—dual head‐mounted eye tracking—to record momentary gaze data from both parents and infants during free‐flowing toy‐play contexts. With fine‐grained sequential patterns extracted from continuous gaze streams, we objectively measure both joint attention and sustained attention as parents and 9‐month‐old infants played with objects and as parents named objects during play. We show that both joint attention and infant sustained attention predicted vocabulary sizes at 12 and 15 months, but infant sustained attention in the context of joint attention, not joint attention itself, is the stronger unique predictor of later vocabulary size. Joint attention may predict word learning because joint attention supports infant attention to the named object.     

The organization of words and environmental sounds in the second year: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

The majority of research examining early auditory‐semantic processing and organization is based on studies of meaningful relations between words and referents. However, a thorough investigation into the fundamental relation between acoustic signals and meaning requires an understanding of how meaning is associated with both lexical and non‐lexical sounds. Indeed, it is unknown how meaningful auditory information that is not lexical (e.g., environmental sounds) is processed and organized in the young brain. To capture the structure of semantic organization for words and environmental sounds, we record event‐related potentials as 20‐month‐olds view images of common nouns (e.g., dog) while hearing words or environmental sounds that match the picture (e.g., “dog” or barking), that are within‐category violations (e.g., “cat” or meowing), or that are between‐category violations (e.g., “pen” or scribbling). Results show both words and environmental sounds exhibit larger negative amplitudes to between‐category violations relative to matches. Unlike words, which show a greater negative response early and consistently to within‐category violations, such an effect for environmental sounds occurs late in semantic processing. Thus, as in adults, the young brain represents semantic relations between words and between environmental sounds, though it more readily differentiates semantically similar words compared to environmental sounds.     

Enhancing the language development of toddlers in foster care by promoting foster parents’ sensitivity: Results from a randomized controlled trial

Young children in foster care are at increased risk for problematic language development, making early intervention a critical tool in enhancing these children's foundational language abilities. This study examined the efficacy of an early preventative intervention, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch‐up for Toddlers (ABC‐T), in improving the receptive vocabulary abilities of toddlers placed in foster care. All the children had been removed from their biological parents’ care and placed into foster care. When children were between 24 and 36 months old, foster parents were contacted by research staff and consented to participate. Parents were randomly assigned using a random number generator to receive either ABC‐T (n = 45), which aimed to promote sensitive parenting for children who have experienced early adversity, or a control intervention (n = 43). Foster children's receptive vocabulary skills were assessed post‐intervention using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Third Edition, when children were between 36 and 60 months old. Children whose foster parents received ABC‐T demonstrated more advanced receptive vocabulary abilities than children whose foster parents received the control intervention. The positive effect of ABC‐T on foster children's receptive vocabulary was mediated by increases in foster parents’ sensitivity during parent–child interactions. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01261806.     

Infants’ statistical word segmentation in an artificial language is linked to both parental speech input and reported production abilities

Individual variability in infant's language processing is partly explained by environmental factors, like the quantity of parental speech input, as well as by infant‐specific factors, like speech production. Here, we explore how these factors affect infant word segmentation. We used an artificial language to ensure that only statistical regularities (like transitional probabilities between syllables) could cue word boundaries, and then asked how the quantity of parental speech input and infants’ babbling repertoire predict infants’ abilities to use these statistical cues. We replicated prior reports showing that 8‐month‐old infants use statistical cues to segment words, with a preference for part‐words over words (a novelty effect). Crucially, 8‐month‐olds with larger novelty effects had received more speech input at 4 months and had greater production abilities at 8 months. These findings establish for the first time that the ability to extract statistical information from speech correlates with individual factors in infancy, like early speech experience and language production. Implications of these findings for understanding individual variability in early language acquisition are discussed.     

Parents’ early book reading to children: Relation to children's later language and literacy outcomes controlling for other parent language input

It is widely believed that reading to preschool children promotes their language and literacy skills. Yet, whether early parent–child book reading is an index of generally rich linguistic input or a unique predictor of later outcomes remains unclear. To address this question, we asked whether naturally occurring parent–child book reading interactions between 1 and 2.5 years‐of‐age predict elementary school language and literacy outcomes, controlling for the quantity of other talk parents provide their children, family socioeconomic status, and children's own early language skill. We find that the quantity of parent–child book reading interactions predicts children's later receptive vocabulary, reading comprehension, and internal motivation to read (but not decoding, external motivation to read, or math skill), controlling for these other factors. Importantly, we also find that parent language that occurs during book reading interactions is more sophisticated than parent language outside book reading interactions in terms of vocabulary diversity and syntactic complexity.     

Surprisingly Neuroplastic Human Brains: Reading,Science, Philosophy,Theology

Human brains, dramatically more complex than anything else in the known universe, are marvelously mutable. Recent neuroscience focuses on how humans create cumulative transmissible cultures which in turn shape mental development. When cultures become literate, cognitive powers escalate. Although until recently only a comparative few learned to read and write, this takes place with the serendipitous re-use of pattern recognizing capacities, such as those for recognizing faces. With sustained reading diligence, as required during education in science, philosophy, and theology, this results in advanced cognitive skills.     

产品卷入度与网络语言态度对网络语言广告说服效果的影响

以在校大学生为被试,探讨网络语言嵌入对广告效果的影响,分别测量产品卷入度和语言态度的调节作用。结果表明：(1)对于高卷入度产品,广告中嵌入网络语言与否对广告的说服效果并无显著影响;对于低卷入度产品,广告中嵌入网络语言的广告态度和产品态度均值均高于标准汉语广告,但对购买意愿无显著影响;(2)对于低卷入度产品,在积极的网络语言态度下,嵌入网络语言组被试的广告态度、产品态度和购买意愿的均值均高于标准汉语广告;而在消极的网络语言态度下,广告中嵌入网络语言的广告态度和产品态度均值均低于标准汉语广告,但对购买意愿无显著影响。     

编码方式对陌生字形记忆的影响

采用学习-再认范式,分别以韩字、英文假词为实验材料,考察了编码方式对陌生字形记忆的影响。在学习阶段,通过随机呈现整体和部分探测刺激,引导被试分别以整体编码和部分编码方式学习陌生字形,并在学习结束后一小时进行再认记忆测试。结果发现,无论以韩字还是以英文假词为材料,部分编码条件的记忆成绩均显著好于整体编码。该结果说明部分编码相比于整体编码能促进陌生字形记忆,并且这种优势效应具有跨文字系统的一致性。