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Silvey C, Gentner D, Richland LE, Goldin-Meadow S. Children's Early Spontaneous Comparisons Predict Later Analogical Reasoning Skills: An Investigation of Parental Influence. Open Mind (Camb) 2023; 7:483-509. [PMID: 37637299 PMCID: PMC10449400 DOI: 10.1162/opmi_a_00093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 08/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Laboratory studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of making comparisons on children's analogical reasoning skills. We extend this finding to an observational dataset comprising 42 children. The prevalence of specific comparisons, which identify a feature of similarity or difference, in children's spontaneous speech from 14-58 months is associated with higher scores in tests of verbal and non-verbal analogy in 6th grade. We test two pre-registered hypotheses about how parents influence children's production of specific comparisons: 1) via modelling, where parents produce specific comparisons during the sessions prior to child onset of this behaviour; 2) via responsiveness, where parents respond to their children's earliest specific comparisons in variably engaged ways. We do not find that parent modelling or responsiveness predicts children's production of specific comparisons. However, one of our pre-registered control analyses suggests that parents' global comparisons-comparisons that do not identify a specific feature of similarity or difference-may bootstrap children's later production of specific comparisons, controlling for parent IQ. We present exploratory analyses following up on this finding and suggest avenues for future confirmatory research. The results illuminate a potential route by which parents' behaviour may influence children's early spontaneous comparisons and potentially their later analogical reasoning skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catriona Silvey
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Dedre Gentner
- Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | | | - Susan Goldin-Meadow
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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2
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Dimitrova N, Özçalışkan Ş. Identifying Patterns of Similarities and Differences between Gesture Production and Comprehension in Autism and Typical Development. JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2022; 46:173-196. [PMID: 35535329 PMCID: PMC9046318 DOI: 10.1007/s10919-021-00394-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Production and comprehension of gesture emerge early and are key to subsequent language development in typical development. Compared to typically developing (TD) children, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit difficulties and/or differences in gesture production. However, we do not yet know if gesture production either shows similar patterns to gesture comprehension across different ages and learners, or alternatively, lags behind gesture comprehension, thus mimicking a pattern akin to speech comprehension and production. In this study, we focus on the gestures produced and comprehended by a group of young TD children and children with ASD—comparable in language ability—with the goal to identify whether gesture production and comprehension follow similar patterns between ages and between learners. We elicited production of gesture in a semi-structured parent–child play and comprehension of gesture in a structured experimenter-child play across two studies. We tested whether young TD children (ages 2–4) follow a similar trajectory in their production and comprehension of gesture (Study 1) across ages, and if so, whether this alignment remains similar for verbal children with ASD (Mage = 5 years), comparable to TD children in language ability (Study 2). Our results provided evidence for similarities between gesture production and comprehension across ages and across learners, suggesting that comprehension and production of gesture form a largely integrated system of communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nevena Dimitrova
- Faculty of Social Work (HETSL|HES-SO), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, 14 chemin des Abeilles, 1010 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Şeyda Özçalışkan
- Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302 USA
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3
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Stites L, Özçalışkan Ş. The Time is at Hand: Literacy Predicts Changes in Children's Gestures About Time. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2021; 50:967-983. [PMID: 33963464 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-021-09782-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/24/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The metaphorical motion of time can be expressed in gesture along either a sagittal axis-with the future ahead and past behind the speaker, or a lateral axis-with the past to the left and future to the right of the speaker (Casasanto & Jasmin in CL 23(4): 643-674, 2012). Adult English speakers, when gesturing about time, show a preference for lateral gestures with left-to-right directionality, consistent with the directionality of the reading-writing system in English (Casasanto & Jasmin in CL 23(4): 643-674, 2012). In this study, we asked how early children would show a preference for left-to-right lateral gestures and whether literacy skills would predict the production of such gestures. Our findings showed developmental changes in both the orientation and directionality of children's gestures about time. Children increased their production of left-to-right lateral gestures over time, with a shift around ages 7-8. More importantly, literacy predicted children's production of such lateral gestures. Overall, these results suggest that the orientation and directionality of children's metaphorical gestures about time follow a developmental pattern that is largely influenced by changes in literacy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Stites
- Georgia State University, 140 Decatur St., Atlanta, GA, 30303, United States.
- , 3166 Lindmoor Dr., Decatur, GA, 30033, USA.
| | - Şeyda Özçalışkan
- Georgia State University, 140 Decatur St., Atlanta, GA, 30303, United States
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4
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Brand CO, Mesoudi A, Smaldino PE. Analogy as a Catalyst for Cumulative Cultural Evolution. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:450-461. [PMID: 33771450 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2020] [Revised: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Analogies, broadly defined, map novel concepts onto familiar concepts, making them essential for perception, reasoning, and communication. We argue that analogy-building served a critical role in the evolution of cumulative culture by allowing humans to learn and transmit complex behavioural sequences that would otherwise be too cognitively demanding or opaque to acquire. The emergence of a protolanguage consisting of simple labels would have provided early humans with the cognitive tools to build explicit analogies and to communicate them to others. This focus on analogy-building can shed new light on the coevolution of cognition and culture and addresses recent calls for better integration of the field of cultural evolution with cognitive science.
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Affiliation(s)
- C O Brand
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK.
| | - A Mesoudi
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
| | - P E Smaldino
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
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Pınar E, Ozturk S, Ketrez FN, Özçalışkan Ş. Parental Speech and Gesture Input to Girls Versus Boys in Singletons and Twins. JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10919-020-00356-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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6
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Long M, Shukla V, Rubio-Fernandez P. The Development of Simile Comprehension: From Similarity to Scalar Implicature. Child Dev 2021; 92:1439-1457. [PMID: 33491772 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Similes require two different pragmatic skills: appreciating the intended similarity and deriving a scalar implicature (e.g., "Lucy is like a parrot" normally implies that Lucy is not a parrot), but previous studies overlooked this second skill. In Experiment 1, preschoolers (N = 48; ages 3-5) understood "X is like a Y" as an expression of similarity. In Experiment 2 (N = 99; ages 3-6, 13) and Experiment 3 (N = 201; ages 3-5 and adults), participants received metaphors ("Lucy is a parrot") or similes ("Lucy is like a parrot") as clues to select one of three images (a parrot, a girl or a parrot-looking girl). An early developmental trend revealed that 3-year-olds started deriving the implicature "X is not a Y," whereas 5-year-olds performed like adults.
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Frausel RR, Silvey C, Freeman C, Dowling N, Richland LE, Levine SC, Raudenbush S, Goldin-Meadow S. The origins of higher-order thinking lie in children's spontaneous talk across the pre-school years. Cognition 2020; 200:104274. [PMID: 32388140 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2019] [Revised: 03/17/2020] [Accepted: 03/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Higher-order thinking is relational reasoning in which multiple representations are linked together, through inferences, comparisons, abstractions, and hierarchies. We examine the development of higher-order thinking in 64 preschool-aged children, observed from 14 to 58 months in naturalistic situations at home. We used children's spontaneous talk about and with relations (i.e., higher-order thinking talk, or HOTT) as a window onto their higher-order thinking skills. We find that surface HOTT, in which relations between representations are more immediate and easily perceptible, appears before-and is far more frequent than-structure HOTT, in which relations between representations are more abstract and less easy to perceive. Child-specific factors (including early vocabulary and gesture use, first-born status, and family income) predict differences in children's onset (i.e., age of acquisition) of HOTT and its trajectory of use across development. Although HOTT utterances tend to be longer and more syntactically complex than non-HOTT utterances, HOTT frequently appears in non-complex utterances, and a substantial proportion of children achieve complex utterance onset prior to the onset of HOTT. This finding suggests that complex language is neither necessary nor sufficient for HOTT to occur; other factors above and beyond complex linguistic skills are involved in the onset and use of higher-order thinking. Finally, we found that the trajectory of HOTT, particularly structure HOTT-but not complex utterances-during the preschool period predicts standardized outcome measures of inference and analogy skills in grade school, which underscores the crucial role that this kind of early talk plays for later outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Cassie Freeman
- The University of Chicago, United States of America; The College Board, United States of America
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Statistical evidence that a child can create a combinatorial linguistic system without external linguistic input: Implications for language evolution. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2016; 81:150-157. [PMID: 28041786 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.12.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2016] [Revised: 10/28/2016] [Accepted: 12/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Can a child who is not exposed to a model for language nevertheless construct a communication system characterized by combinatorial structure? We know that deaf children whose hearing losses prevent them from acquiring spoken language, and whose hearing parents have not exposed them to sign language, use gestures, called homesigns, to communicate. In this study, we call upon a new formal analysis that characterizes the statistical profile of grammatical rules and, when applied to child language data, finds that young children's language is consistent with a productive grammar rather than rote memorization of specific word combinations in caregiver speech. We apply this formal analysis to homesign, and find that homesign can also be characterized as having productive grammar. Our findings thus provide evidence that a child can create a combinatorial linguistic system without external linguistic input, and offer unique insight into how the capacity of language evolved as part of human biology.
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Lupyan G, Bergen B. How Language Programs the Mind. Top Cogn Sci 2015; 8:408-24. [DOI: 10.1111/tops.12155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2014] [Revised: 10/31/2014] [Accepted: 10/31/2014] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Gary Lupyan
- Department of Psychology; University of Wisconsin-Madison
| | - Benjamin Bergen
- Department of Cognitive Science; University of California at San Diego
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10
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Edmiston P, Lupyan G. What makes words special? Words as unmotivated cues. Cognition 2015; 143:93-100. [PMID: 26117488 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2014] [Revised: 05/28/2015] [Accepted: 06/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Verbal labels, such as the words "dog" and "guitar," activate conceptual knowledge more effectively than corresponding environmental sounds, such as a dog bark or a guitar strum, even though both are unambiguous cues to the categories of dogs and guitars (Lupyan & Thompson-Schill, 2012). We hypothesize that this advantage of labels emerges because word-forms, unlike other cues, do not vary in a motivated way with their referent. The sound of a guitar cannot help but inform a listener to the type of guitar making it (electric, acoustic, etc.). The word "guitar" on the other hand, can leave the type of guitar unspecified. We argue that as a result, labels gain the ability to cue a more abstract mental representation, promoting efficient processing of category members. In contrast, environmental sounds activate representations that are more tightly linked to the specific cause of the sound. Our results show that upon hearing environmental sounds such as a dog bark or guitar strum, people cannot help but activate a particular instance of a category, in a particular state, at a particular time, as measured by patterns of response times on cue-picture matching tasks (Exps. 1-2) and eye-movements in a task where the cues are task-irrelevant (Exp. 3). In comparison, labels activate concepts in a more abstract, decontextualized way-a difference that we argue can be explained by labels acting as "unmotivated cues".
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierce Edmiston
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States.
| | - Gary Lupyan
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
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Goldin-Meadow S, Levine SC, Hedges LV, Huttenlocher J, Raudenbush SW, Small SL. New evidence about language and cognitive development based on a longitudinal study: hypotheses for intervention. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014; 69:588-99. [PMID: 24911049 DOI: 10.1037/a0036886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
We review findings from a four-year longitudinal study of language learning conducted on two samples: a sample of typically developing children whose parents vary substantially in socioeconomic status, and a sample of children with pre- or perinatal brain injury. This design enables us to study language development across a wide range of language learning environments and a wide range of language learners. We videotaped samples of children's and parents' speech and gestures during spontaneous interactions at home every four months, and then we transcribed and coded the tapes. We focused on two behaviors known to vary across individuals and environments-child gesture and parent speech-behaviors that have the potential to index, and perhaps even play a role in creating, differences across children in linguistic and other cognitive skills. Our observations have led to four hypotheses that have promise for the development of diagnostic tools and interventions to enhance language and cognitive development and brain plasticity after neonatal injury. One kind of hypothesis involves tools that could identify children who may be at risk for later language deficits. The other involves interventions that have the potential to promote language development. We present our four hypotheses as a summary of the findings from our study because there is scientific evidence behind them and because this evidence has the potential to be put to practical use in improving education.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Larry V Hedges
- National Opinion Research Center (NORC), The University of Chicago
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12
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Rigney J, Wang SH. Delineating the Boundaries of Infants’ Spatial Categories: The Case of Containment. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2013.848868] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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13
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Stites LJ, Özçalişkan Ş. Developmental changes in children's comprehension and explanation of spatial metaphors for time. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2013; 40:1123-1137. [PMID: 23127368 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000912000384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Time is frequently expressed with spatial motion, using one of three different metaphor types: moving-time, moving-ego, and sequence-as-position. Previous work shows that children can understand and explain moving-time metaphors by age five (Özçalışkan, 2005). In this study, we focus on all three metaphor types for time, and ask whether metaphor type has an effect on children's metaphor comprehension and explanation abilities. Analysis of the responses of three- to six-year-old children and adults showed that comprehension and explanation of all three metaphor types emerge at an early age. Moreover, children's metaphor comprehension and explanation vary by metaphor type: children perform better in understanding and explaining metaphors that structure time in relation to the observer of time (moving-ego, moving-time) than metaphors that structure time without any relation to the observer of time (sequence-as-position-on-a-path). Our findings suggest that children's bodily experiences might play a role in their developing understanding of the abstract concept of time.
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