Looking and touching: what extant approaches reveal about the structure of early word knowledge

Kristi Hendrickson; Samantha Mitsven; Diane Poulin-Dubois; Pascal Zesiger; Margaret Friend

doi:10.1111/desc.12250

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Looking and touching: what extant approaches reveal about the structure of early word knowledge

Journal article

Open access

Looking and touching: what extant approaches reveal about the structure of early word knowledge

Kristi Hendrickson, Samantha Mitsven, Diane Poulin-Dubois, Pascal Zesiger and Margaret Friend

Developmental science, Vol.18(5), pp.723-735

09/2015

DOI: 10.1111/desc.12250

PMCID: PMC4447618

PMID: 25444711

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Abstract

The goal of the current study is to assess the temporal dynamics of vision and action to evaluate the underlying word representations that guide infants' responses. Sixteen-month-old infants participated in a two-alternative forced-choice word-picture matching task. We conducted a moment-by-moment analysis of looking and reaching behaviors as they occurred in tandem to assess the speed with which a prompted word was processed (visual reaction time) as a function of the type of haptic response: Target, Distractor, or No Touch. Visual reaction times (visual RTs) were significantly slower during No Touches compared to Distractor and Target Touches, which were statistically indistinguishable. The finding that visual RTs were significantly faster during Distractor Touches compared to No Touches suggests that incorrect and absent haptic responses appear to index distinct knowledge states: incorrect responses are associated with partial knowledge whereas absent responses appear to reflect a true failure to map lexical items to their target referents. Further, we found that those children who were faster at processing words were also those children who exhibited better haptic performance. This research provides a methodological clarification on knowledge measured by the visual and haptic modalities and new evidence for a continuum of word knowledge in the second year of life.

Vision, Ocular - physiology

Vocabulary

Humans

Female

Infant

Male

Pattern Recognition, Visual

Reaction Time - physiology

Touch - physiology

Photic Stimulation

Knowledge

Association Learning

Details

Title: Subtitle: Looking and touching: what extant approaches reveal about the structure of early word knowledge
Creators: Kristi Hendrickson - Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, USA
Samantha Mitsven - Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, USA
Diane Poulin-Dubois - Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Canada
Pascal Zesiger - Department of Psychology, Université de Genève, Switzerland
Margaret Friend - Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, USA
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Developmental science, Vol.18(5), pp.723-735
DOI: 10.1111/desc.12250
PMID: 25444711
PMCID: PMC4447618
NLM abbreviation: Dev Sci
ISSN: 1363-755X
eISSN: 1467-7687
Publisher: England
Grant note: HD068458 / NICHD NIH HHS 5T32DC007361 / NIDCD NIH HHS R01 HD068458 / NICHD NIH HHS T32 DC007361 / NIDCD NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 09/2015
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Center for Social Science Innovation
Record Identifier: 9984002471902771

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