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Yu Y, vanMarle K. Enumeration takes time: Accuracy improves even after stimuli disappear. Cognition 2022; 225:105147. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Revised: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Aslin RN, Wang AF. A distributional perspective on the gavagai problem in early word learning. Cognition 2021; 213:104680. [PMID: 33853740 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 03/14/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Word learning entails the mapping of an auditory word-form to its appropriate grammatical category (e.g., noun, verb, adjective), but before that mapping can occur, the naïve learner must infer which of the myriad of possible referents of that word was intended by the speaker. This creates a computational explosion of referential ambiguity referred to as the gavagai problem. In a set of corpus analyses of parent-directed speech to young infants, we describe the distributional information available to early word learners, with a focus on nouns and adjectives that refer to whole objects and object properties. And in two experiments on word-learning in adults spanning seven different distributional conditions, we document how variations in the ratio of novel labels for objects and properties affect the robustness of word learning. Our results suggest that the language input to 6- to 20-month-olds is robustly populated with high-frequency object words and high-frequency property words, but their co-occurrence is sparse. Although this distributional information slightly favors object words over property words, a more plausible account of the whole-object bias in early word learning is the inability to encode the details of an object/event during rapid naming. Our results from adults, presented with novel labels for multi-referent objects in a cross-situational statistical learning paradigm, also reveal this whole-object bias as well as the absence of property-label generalization to novel objects, even when the distribution of labels is shifted almost exclusively to property words. These results are discussed in terms of the relative ease of mapping auditory word-forms to whole objects vs. object properties, thereby limiting the combinatorics of the gavagai problem, especially in infants with immature encoding and memory representation abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard N Aslin
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, United States of America; Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, United States of America; Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States of America; Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America.
| | - Alice F Wang
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, United States of America
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Silverstein P, Gliga T, Westermann G, Parise E. Probing communication-induced memory biases in preverbal infants: Two replication attempts of Yoon, Johnson and Csibra (2008). Infant Behav Dev 2019; 55:77-87. [DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2018] [Revised: 12/14/2018] [Accepted: 03/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
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Ferrara K, Furlong S, Park S, Landau B. Detailed Visual Memory Capacity Is Present Early in Childhood. Open Mind (Camb) 2017; 1:136-147. [PMID: 30931420 PMCID: PMC6436559 DOI: 10.1162/opmi_a_00014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2017] [Accepted: 08/24/2017] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that adults are able to remember more than 1,000 images with great detail. However, little is known about the development of this visual capacity, nor its presence early in life. This study tests the level of detail of young children's memory for a large number of items, adapting the method of Brady, Konkle, Alvarez, and Oliva (2008). Four- and six-year-old children were shown more than 100 images of everyday objects. They were then tested for recognition of familiar items in a binary decision task. The identity of the foil test item was manipulated in three conditions (Category, Exemplar, and State). Children demonstrated high accuracy across all conditions, remembering not only the basic-level category (Category), but also unique details (Exemplar), and information about position and arrangement of parts (State). These findings demonstrate that children spontaneously encode a high degree of visual detail. Early in life, visual memory exhibits high fidelity and extends over a large set of items.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah Furlong
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University
| | - Soojin Park
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University
- Department of Psychology, Yonsei University
| | - Barbara Landau
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University
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Towards an integrative model of visual short-term memory maintenance: Evidence from the effects of attentional control, load, decay, and their interactions in childhood. Cognition 2017; 169:61-83. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2017] [Revised: 08/12/2017] [Accepted: 08/14/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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Oakes LM, Baumgartner HA, Kanjlia S, Luck SJ. An eye tracking investigation of color-location binding in infants' visual short-term memory. INFANCY 2017; 22:584-607. [PMID: 28966559 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Two experiments examined 8- and 10-month-old infants' (N = 71) binding of object identity (color) and location information in visual short-term memory (VSTM) using a one-shot change detection task. Building on previous work using the simultaneous streams change detection task, we confirmed that 8- and 10-month-old infants are sensitive to changes in binding between identity and location in VSTM. Further, we demonstrated that infants recognize specifically what changed in these events. Thus, infants' VSTM for binding is robust and can be observed in different procedures and with different stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M Oakes
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis.,Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
| | - Heidi A Baumgartner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis.,Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
| | - Shipra Kanjlia
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
| | - Steven J Luck
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis.,Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
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Aslin RN. Statistical learning: a powerful mechanism that operates by mere exposure. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2017; 8:10.1002/wcs.1373. [PMID: 27906526 PMCID: PMC5182173 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2015] [Revised: 09/11/2015] [Accepted: 10/13/2015] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
How do infants learn so rapidly and with little apparent effort? In 1996, Saffran, Aslin, and Newport reported that 8-month-old human infants could learn the underlying temporal structure of a stream of speech syllables after only 2 min of passive listening. This demonstration of what was called statistical learning, involving no instruction, reinforcement, or feedback, led to dozens of confirmations of this powerful mechanism of implicit learning in a variety of modalities, domains, and species. These findings reveal that infants are not nearly as dependent on explicit forms of instruction as we might have assumed from studies of learning in which children or adults are taught facts such as math or problem solving skills. Instead, at least in some domains, infants soak up the information around them by mere exposure. Learning and development in these domains thus appear to occur automatically and with little active involvement by an instructor (parent or teacher). The details of this statistical learning mechanism are discussed, including how exposure to specific types of information can, under some circumstances, generalize to never-before-observed information, thereby enabling transfer of learning. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1373. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1373 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard N Aslin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
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REFERENCES. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 2016. [DOI: 10.1111/mono.12254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Abstract
Over the past 20 years, the field of cognitive neuroscience has relied heavily on hemodynamic measures of blood oxygenation in local regions of the brain to make inferences about underlying cognitive processes. These same functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) techniques have recently been adapted for use with human infants. We review the advantages and disadvantages of these two neuroimaging methods for studies of infant cognition, with a particular emphasis on their technical limitations and the linking hypotheses that are used to draw conclusions from correlational data. In addition to summarizing key findings in several domains of infant cognition, we highlight the prospects of improving the quality of fNIRS data from infants to address in a more sophisticated way how cognitive development is mediated by changes in underlying neural mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard N Aslin
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627; ,
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Abstract
Acquiring knowledge about the underlying structures of the environment presents a number of challenges for a naive learner. These challenges include the absence of reinforcement to guide learning, the presence of numerous information sources from which only a select few are relevant, and the uncertainty about when an underlying structure may have undergone a change. A crucial implication of these challenges is that the naive learner must make implicit decisions about when to generalize to novel inputs and when to restrict generalization because there are multiple underlying structures. An historical perspective on these challenges is presented and some potential solutions are proposed.
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Oakes LM, Baumgartner HA, Barrett FS, Messenger IM, Luck SJ. Developmental changes in visual short-term memory in infancy: evidence from eye-tracking. Front Psychol 2013; 4:697. [PMID: 24106485 PMCID: PMC3788337 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00697] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2013] [Accepted: 09/13/2013] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
We assessed visual short-term memory (VSTM) for color in 6- and 8-month-old infants (n = 76) using a one-shot change detection task. In this task, a sample array of two colored squares was visible for 517 ms, followed by a 317-ms retention period and then a 3000-ms test array consisting of one unchanged item and one item in a new color. We tracked gaze at 60 Hz while infants looked at the changed and unchanged items during test. When the two sample items were different colors (Experiment 1), 8-month-old infants exhibited a preference for the changed item, indicating memory for the colors, but 6-month-olds exhibited no evidence of memory. When the two sample items were the same color and did not need to be encoded as separate objects (Experiment 2), 6-month-old infants demonstrated memory. These results show that infants can encode information in VSTM in a single, brief exposure that simulates the timing of a single fixation period in natural scene viewing, and they reveal rapid developmental changes between 6 and 8 months in the ability to store individuated items in VSTM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M Oakes
- Department of Psychology, Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis Davis, CA, USA
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Kaldy Z, Blaser E. Red to green or fast to slow? Infants' visual working memory for "just salient differences". Child Dev 2013; 84:1855-62. [PMID: 23521578 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In this study, 6-month-old infants' visual working memory for a static feature (color) and a dynamic feature (rotational motion) was compared. Comparing infants' use of different features can only be done properly if experimental manipulations to those features are equally salient (Kaldy & Blaser, 2009; Kaldy, Blaser, & Leslie, 2006). The interdimensional salience mapping method was used to find two objects that each were one Just Salient Difference from a common baseline object (N = 16). These calibrated stimuli were then used in a subsequent two-alternative forced-choice preferential looking memory test (N = 28). Results showed that infants noted the color change, but not the equally salient change in rotation speed.
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Demetriou A, Spanoudis G, Mouyi A. Educating the Developing Mind: Towards an Overarching Paradigm. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2011. [DOI: 10.1007/s10648-011-9178-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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