1
|
Zettersten M, Cox C, Bergmann C, Tsui ASM, Soderstrom M, Mayor J, Lundwall RA, Lewis M, Kosie JE, Kartushina N, Fusaroli R, Frank MC, Byers-Heinlein K, Black AK, Mathur MB. Evidence for Infant-directed Speech Preference Is Consistent Across Large-scale, Multi-site Replication and Meta-analysis. Open Mind (Camb) 2024; 8:439-461. [PMID: 38665547 PMCID: PMC11045035 DOI: 10.1162/opmi_a_00134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
There is substantial evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech (IDS) to adult-directed speech (ADS). The strongest evidence for this claim has come from two large-scale investigations: i) a community-augmented meta-analysis of published behavioral studies and ii) a large-scale multi-lab replication study. In this paper, we aim to improve our understanding of the IDS preference and its boundary conditions by combining and comparing these two data sources across key population and design characteristics of the underlying studies. Our analyses reveal that both the meta-analysis and multi-lab replication show moderate effect sizes (d ≈ 0.35 for each estimate) and that both of these effects persist when relevant study-level moderators are added to the models (i.e., experimental methods, infant ages, and native languages). However, while the overall effect size estimates were similar, the two sources diverged in the effects of key moderators: both infant age and experimental method predicted IDS preference in the multi-lab replication study, but showed no effect in the meta-analysis. These results demonstrate that the IDS preference generalizes across a variety of experimental conditions and sampling characteristics, while simultaneously identifying key differences in the empirical picture offered by each source individually and pinpointing areas where substantial uncertainty remains about the influence of theoretically central moderators on IDS preference. Overall, our results show how meta-analyses and multi-lab replications can be used in tandem to understand the robustness and generalizability of developmental phenomena.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Christopher Cox
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University; Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | | | | | | | - Julien Mayor
- Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo
| | | | - Molly Lewis
- Department of Psychology/Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
| | | | | | - Riccardo Fusaroli
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University; Interacting Minds Center, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
| | | | | | - Alexis K. Black
- School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia
| | | |
Collapse
|
2
|
Zettersten M, Bredemann C, Kaul M, Ellis K, Vlach HA, Kirkorian H, Lupyan G. Nameability supports rule-based category learning in children and adults. Child Dev 2024; 95:497-514. [PMID: 37728552 PMCID: PMC10922161 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Revised: 05/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
The present study tested the hypothesis that verbal labels support category induction by providing compact hypotheses. Ninety-seven 4- to 6-year-old children (M = 63.2 months; 46 female, 51 male; 77% White, 8% more than one race, 4% Asian, and 3% Black; tested 2018) and 90 adults (M = 20.1 years; 70 female, 20 male) in the Midwestern United States learned novel categories with features that were easy (e.g., "red") or difficult (e.g., "mauve") to name. Adults (d = 1.06) and-to a lesser extent-children (d = 0.57; final training block) learned categories composed of more nameable features better. Children's knowledge of difficult-to-name color words predicted their learning for categories with difficult-to-name features. Rule-based category learning may be supported by the emerging ability to form verbal hypotheses.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Zettersten
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Psychology, 1202 W Johnson St, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Princeton University, Department of Psychology, South Dr, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Catherine Bredemann
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Educational Psychology, 1025 W Johnson St, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Megan Kaul
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Educational Psychology, 1025 W Johnson St, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Kaitlynn Ellis
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Educational Psychology, 1025 W Johnson St, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Haley A. Vlach
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Educational Psychology, 1025 W Johnson St, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Heather Kirkorian
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Human Development and Family Studies Department, 1300 Linden Dr, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Gary Lupyan
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Psychology, 1202 W Johnson St, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Zettersten M, Yurovsky D, Xu TL, Uner S, Tsui ASM, Schneider RM, Saleh AN, Meylan SC, Marchman VA, Mankewitz J, MacDonald K, Long B, Lewis M, Kachergis G, Handa K, deMayo B, Carstensen A, Braginsky M, Boyce V, Bhatt NS, Bergey CA, Frank MC. Peekbank: An open, large-scale repository for developmental eye-tracking data of children's word recognition. Behav Res Methods 2023; 55:2485-2500. [PMID: 36002623 PMCID: PMC9950292 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-01906-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/27/2022] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
The ability to rapidly recognize words and link them to referents is central to children's early language development. This ability, often called word recognition in the developmental literature, is typically studied in the looking-while-listening paradigm, which measures infants' fixation on a target object (vs. a distractor) after hearing a target label. We present a large-scale, open database of infant and toddler eye-tracking data from looking-while-listening tasks. The goal of this effort is to address theoretical and methodological challenges in measuring vocabulary development. We first present how we created the database, its features and structure, and associated tools for processing and accessing infant eye-tracking datasets. Using these tools, we then work through two illustrative examples to show how researchers can use Peekbank to interrogate theoretical and methodological questions about children's developing word recognition ability.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Zettersten
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, 218 Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA.
| | - Daniel Yurovsky
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Tian Linger Xu
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Sarp Uner
- Data Science Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | | | - Rose M Schneider
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Annissa N Saleh
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Stephan C Meylan
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | | | | | - Bria Long
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Molly Lewis
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - George Kachergis
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Benjamin deMayo
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, 218 Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA
| | | | - Mika Braginsky
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Veronica Boyce
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Naiti S Bhatt
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Michael C Frank
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Koranda MJ, Zettersten M, MacDonald MC. Good-Enough Production: Selecting Easier Words Instead of More Accurate Ones. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:1440-1451. [PMID: 35942911 PMCID: PMC9630725 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221089603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2020] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Dominant theories of language production suggest that word choice-lexical selection-is driven by alignment with the intended message: To talk about a young feline, we choose the most aligned word, kitten. Another factor that could shape lexical selection is word accessibility, or how easy it is to produce a given word (e.g., cat is more accessible than kitten). To test whether producers are also influenced by word accessibility, we designed an artificial lexicon containing high- and low-frequency words whose meanings correspond to compass directions. Participants in a communication game (total N = 181 adults) earned points by producing compass directions, which often required an implicit decision between a high- and low-frequency word. A trade-off was observed across four experiments; specifically, high-frequency words were produced even when less aligned with messages. These results suggest that implicit decisions between words are impacted by accessibility. Of all the times that people have produced cat, sometimes they likely meant kitten.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Martin Zettersten
- Department of Psychology, University of
Wisconsin–Madison
- Department of Psychology, Princeton
University
| | | |
Collapse
|
5
|
Wojcik EH, Zettersten M, Benitez VL. The map trap: Why and how word learning research should move beyond mapping. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci 2022; 13:e1596. [PMID: 35507459 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
A pervasive goal in the study of how children learn word meanings is to explain how young children solve the mapping problem. The mapping problem asks how language learners connect a label to its referent. Mapping is one part of word learning, however, it does not reflect other critical components of word meaning construction, such as the encoding of lexico-semantic relations and socio-pragmatic context. In this paper, we argue that word learning researchers' overemphasis of mapping has constrained our experimental paradigms and hypotheses, leading to misconceived theories and policy interventions. We first explain how the mapping focus limits our ability to study the richness and complexity of what infants and children learn about, and do with, word meanings. Then, we describe how our focus on mapping has constrained theory development. Specifically, we show how it has led to (a) the misguided emphasis on referent selection and ostensive labeling, and (b) the undervaluing of diverse pathways to word knowledge, both within and across cultures. We also review the consequences of the mapping focus outside of the lab, including myopic language learning interventions. Last, we outline an alternative, more inclusive approach to experimental study and theory construction in word learning research. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Language Psychology > Theory and Methods Psychology > Learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Erica H Wojcik
- Department of Psychology, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA
| | - Martin Zettersten
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
6
|
Zettersten M, Pomper R, Saffran J. Valid points and looks: Reliability and validity go hand‐in‐hand when improving infant methods. Infant and Child Development 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Zettersten
- Department of Psychology Princeton University Princeton New Jersey USA
| | - Ron Pomper
- Center for Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning Boys Town National Research Hospital Omaha Nebraska USA
| | - Jenny Saffran
- Department of Psychology University of Wisconsin‐Madison Madison Wisconsin USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Abstract
The present study examined how children spontaneously represent facial cues associated with emotion. 106 three‐ to six‐year‐old children (48 male, 58 female; 9.4% Asian, 84.0% White, 6.6% more than one race) and 40 adults (10 male, 30 female; 10% Hispanic, 30% Asian, 2.5% Black, 57.5% White) were recruited from a Midwestern city (2019–2020), and sorted emotion cues in a spatial arrangement method that assesses emotion knowledge without reliance on emotion vocabulary. Using supervised and unsupervised analyses, the study found evidence for continuities and gradual changes in children's emotion knowledge compared to adults. Emotion knowledge develops through an incremental learning process in which children change their representations using combinations of factors—particularly valence—that are weighted differently across development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kristina Woodard
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Martin Zettersten
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.,Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - Seth D Pollak
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Lupyan G, Zettersten M. Does Vocabulary Help Structure the Mind? Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/9781119684527.ch6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
|
9
|
Santolin C, Garcia-Castro G, Zettersten M, Sebastian-Galles N, Saffran J. Experience with research paradigms relates to infants' direction of preference. Infancy 2021; 26:39-46. [PMID: 33111438 PMCID: PMC7770082 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2020] [Revised: 09/07/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Interpreting and predicting direction of preference in infant research has been a thorny issue for decades. Several factors have been proposed to account for familiarity versus novelty preferences, including age, length of exposure, and task complexity. The current study explores an additional dimension: experience with the experimental paradigm. We reanalyzed the data from 4 experiments on artificial grammar learning in 12-month-old infants run using the head-turn preference procedure (HPP). Participants in these studies varied substantially in their number of laboratory visits. Results show that the number of HPP studies is related to direction of preference: Infants with limited experience with the HPP setting were more likely to show familiarity preferences than infants who had amassed more experience with this paradigm. This evidence has important implications for the interpretation of experimental results: Experience with a given method or, more broadly, with the laboratory environment may affect infants' patterns of preferences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Martin Zettersten
- Waisman Center & Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
| | | | - Jenny Saffran
- Waisman Center & Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Zettersten M, Saffran JR. Sampling to learn words: Adults and children sample words that reduce referential ambiguity. Dev Sci 2020; 24:e13064. [PMID: 33206454 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Revised: 09/21/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
How do learners gather new information during word learning? One possibility is that learners selectively sample items that help them reduce uncertainty about new word meanings. In a series of cross-situational word learning tasks with adults and children, we manipulated the referential ambiguity of label-object pairs experienced during training and subsequently investigated which words participants chose to sample additional information about. In the first experiment, adult learners chose to receive additional training on object-label associations that reduce referential ambiguity during cross-situational word learning. This ambiguity-reduction strategy was related to improved test performance. In two subsequent experiments, we found that, at least in some contexts, children (3-8 years of age) show a similar preference to seek information about words experienced in ambiguous word learning situations. In Experiment 2, children did not preferentially select object-label associations that remained ambiguous during cross-situational word learning. However, in a third experiment that increased the relative ambiguity of two sets of novel object-label associations, we found evidence that children preferentially make selections that reduce ambiguity about novel word meanings. These results carry implications for understanding how children actively contribute to their own language development by seeking information that supports learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Zettersten
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Jenny R Saffran
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Byers-Heinlein K, Bergmann C, Davies C, Frank MC, Hamlin JK, Kline M, Kominsky JF, Kosie JE, Lew-Williams C, Liu L, Mastroberardino M, Singh L, Waddell CPG, Zettersten M, Soderstrom M. Building a collaborative Psychological Science: Lessons learned from ManyBabies 1. Can Psychol 2020; 61:349-363. [PMID: 34219905 PMCID: PMC8244655 DOI: 10.1037/cap0000216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The field of infancy research faces a difficult challenge: some questions require samples that are simply too large for any one lab to recruit and test. ManyBabies aims to address this problem by forming large-scale collaborations on key theoretical questions in developmental science, while promoting the uptake of Open Science practices. Here, we look back on the first project completed under the ManyBabies umbrella - ManyBabies 1 - which tested the development of infant-directed speech preference. Our goal is to share the lessons learned over the course of the project and to articulate our vision for the role of large-scale collaborations in the field. First, we consider the decisions made in scaling up experimental research for a collaboration involving 100+ researchers and 70+ labs. Next, we discuss successes and challenges over the course of the project, including: protocol design and implementation, data analysis, organizational structures and collaborative workflows, securing funding, and encouraging broad participation in the project. Finally, we discuss the benefits we see both in ongoing ManyBabies projects and in future large-scale collaborations in general, with a particular eye towards developing best practices and increasing growth and diversity in infancy research and psychological science in general. Throughout the paper, we include first-hand narrative experiences, in order to illustrate the perspectives of researchers playing different roles within the project. While this project focused on the unique challenges of infant research, many of the insights we gained can be applied to large-scale collaborations across the broader field of psychology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Liquan Liu
- University of Oslo; Western Sydney University
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
12
|
Zettersten M, Potter CE, Saffran JR. Tuning in to non-adjacencies: Exposure to learnable patterns supports discovering otherwise difficult structures. Cognition 2020; 202:104283. [PMID: 32623134 PMCID: PMC7376744 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2019] [Revised: 03/04/2020] [Accepted: 03/29/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Non-adjacent dependencies are ubiquitous in language, but difficult to learn in artificial language experiments in the lab. Previous research suggests that non-adjacent dependencies are more learnable given structural support in the input - for instance, in the presence of high variability between dependent items. However, not all non-adjacent dependencies occur in supportive contexts. How are such regularities learned? One possibility is that learning one set of non-adjacent dependencies can highlight similar structures in subsequent input, facilitating the acquisition of new non-adjacent dependencies that are otherwise difficult to learn. In three experiments, we show that prior exposure to learnable non-adjacent dependencies - i.e., dependencies presented in a learning context that has been shown to facilitate discovery - improves learning of novel non-adjacent regularities that are typically not detected. These findings demonstrate how the discovery of complex linguistic structures can build on past learning in supportive contexts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Zettersten
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
| | - Christine E Potter
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, 220 Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Jenny R Saffran
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Benitez VL, Zettersten M, Wojcik E. The temporal structure of naming events differentially affects children's and adults' cross-situational word learning. J Exp Child Psychol 2020; 200:104961. [PMID: 32853966 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2020] [Revised: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 07/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
To acquire novel words, learners often need to integrate information about word meanings across ambiguous learning events distributed in time. How does the temporal structure of those word learning events affect what learners encode? How do the effects of temporal structure differ in children and adults? In the current experiments, we asked how 4- to 7-year-old children's (N = 110) and adults' (N = 90) performance on a cross-situational word learning task is influenced by the temporal distribution of learning events. We tested participants in three training conditions, manipulating the number of trials that separated naming events for specific objects. In the Unstructured condition, the temporal distribution was varied; in the Massed condition, naming events occurred with few interleaved trials; and in the Interleaved condition, naming events occurred with many interleaved trials. Adults showed substantially larger benefits from the Massed condition than children, whereas children were equally successful at learning in the Massed and Interleaved conditions. These results provide evidence that adults differ from children in how they exploit temporal structure during cross-situational word learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Erica Wojcik
- Department of Psychology, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Frank MC, Alcock KJ, Arias-Trejo N, Aschersleben G, Baldwin D, Barbu S, Bergelson E, Bergmann C, Black AK, Blything R, Böhland MP, Bolitho P, Borovsky A, Brady SM, Braun B, Brown A, Byers-Heinlein K, Campbell LE, Cashon C, Choi M, Christodoulou J, Cirelli LK, Conte S, Cordes S, Cox C, Cristia A, Cusack R, Davies C, de Klerk M, Delle Luche C, Ruiter LD, Dinakar D, Dixon KC, Durier V, Durrant S, Fennell C, Ferguson B, Ferry A, Fikkert P, Flanagan T, Floccia C, Foley M, Fritzsche T, Frost RLA, Gampe A, Gervain J, Gonzalez-Gomez N, Gupta A, Hahn LE, Kiley Hamlin J, Hannon EE, Havron N, Hay J, Hernik M, Höhle B, Houston DM, Howard LH, Ishikawa M, Itakura S, Jackson I, Jakobsen KV, Jarto M, Johnson SP, Junge C, Karadag D, Kartushina N, Kellier DJ, Keren-Portnoy T, Klassen K, Kline M, Ko ES, Kominsky JF, Kosie JE, Kragness HE, Krieger AAR, Krieger F, Lany J, Lazo RJ, Lee M, Leservoisier C, Levelt C, Lew-Williams C, Lippold M, Liszkowski U, Liu L, Luke SG, Lundwall RA, Macchi Cassia V, Mani N, Marino C, Martin A, Mastroberardino M, Mateu V, Mayor J, Menn K, Michel C, Moriguchi Y, Morris B, Nave KM, Nazzi T, Noble C, Novack MA, Olesen NM, John Orena A, Ota M, Panneton R, Esfahani SP, Paulus M, Pletti C, Polka L, Potter C, Rabagliati H, Ramachandran S, Rennels JL, Reynolds GD, Roth KC, Rothwell C, Rubez D, Ryjova Y, Saffran J, Sato A, Savelkouls S, Schachner A, Schafer G, Schreiner MS, Seidl A, Shukla M, Simpson EA, Singh L, Skarabela B, Soley G, Sundara M, Theakston A, Thompson A, Trainor LJ, Trehub SE, Trøan AS, Tsui ASM, Twomey K, Von Holzen K, Wang Y, Waxman S, Werker JF, Wermelinger S, Woolard A, Yurovsky D, Zahner K, Zettersten M, Soderstrom M. Quantifying Sources of Variability in Infancy Research Using the Infant-Directed-Speech Preference. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science 2020. [DOI: 10.1177/2515245919900809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) assessing the overall replicability of a single theoretically important phenomenon and (b) examining methodological, cultural, and developmental moderators. We focus on infants’ preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Stimuli of mothers speaking to their infants and to an adult in North American English were created using seminaturalistic laboratory-based audio recordings. Infants’ relative preference for IDS and ADS was assessed across 67 laboratories in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia using the three common methods for measuring infants’ discrimination (head-turn preference, central fixation, and eye tracking). The overall meta-analytic effect size (Cohen’s d) was 0.35, 95% confidence interval = [0.29, 0.42], which was reliably above zero but smaller than the meta-analytic mean computed from previous literature (0.67). The IDS preference was significantly stronger in older children, in those children for whom the stimuli matched their native language and dialect, and in data from labs using the head-turn preference procedure. Together, these findings replicate the IDS preference but suggest that its magnitude is modulated by development, native-language experience, and testing procedure.
Collapse
|
15
|
Zettersten M, Lupyan G. Finding categories through words: More nameable features improve category learning. Cognition 2019; 196:104135. [PMID: 31821963 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2018] [Revised: 11/07/2019] [Accepted: 11/11/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
What are the cognitive consequences of having a name for something? Having a word for a feature makes it easier to communicate about a set of exemplars belonging to the same category (e.g., "the red things"). But might it also make it easier to learn the category itself? Here, we provide evidence that the ease of learning category distinctions based on simple visual features is predicted from the ease of naming those features. Across seven experiments, participants learned categories composed of colors or shapes that were either easy or more difficult to name in English. Holding the category structure constant, when the underlying features of the category were easy to name, participants were faster and more accurate in learning the novel category. These results suggest that compact verbal labels may facilitate hypothesis formation during learning: it is easier to pose the hypothesis "it is about redness" than "it is about that pinkish-purplish color". Our results have consequences for understanding how developmental and cross-linguistic differences in a language's vocabulary affect category learning and conceptual development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Zettersten
- Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
| | - Gary Lupyan
- Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Zettersten M, Wojcik E, Benitez VL, Saffran J. The company objects keep: Linking referents together during cross-situational word learning. J Mem Lang 2018; 99:62-73. [PMID: 29503502 PMCID: PMC5828251 DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2017.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Learning the meanings of words involves not only linking individual words to referents but also building a network of connections among entities in the world, concepts, and words. Previous studies reveal that infants and adults track the statistical co-occurrence of labels and objects across multiple ambiguous training instances to learn words. However, it is less clear whether, given distributional or attentional cues, learners also encode associations amongst the novel objects. We investigated the consequences of two types of cues that highlighted object-object links in a cross-situational word learning task: distributional structure - how frequently the referents of novel words occurred together - and visual context - whether the referents were seen on matching backgrounds. Across three experiments, we found that in addition to learning novel words, adults formed connections between frequently co-occurring objects. These findings indicate that learners exploit statistical regularities to form multiple types of associations during word learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Zettersten
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706
- Corresponding author.
| | - Erica Wojcik
- Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
| | | | - Jenny Saffran
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Hoehl S, Zettersten M, Schleihauf H, Grätz S, Pauen S. The role of social interaction and pedagogical cues for eliciting and reducing overimitation in preschoolers. J Exp Child Psychol 2014; 122:122-33. [PMID: 24569041 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2013] [Revised: 12/28/2013] [Accepted: 12/29/2013] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The tendency to imitate causally irrelevant actions is termed overimitation. Here we investigated (a) whether communication of a model performing irrelevant actions is necessary to elicit overimitation in preschoolers and (b) whether communication of another model performing an efficient action modulates the subsequent reduction of overimitation. In the study, 5-year-olds imitated irrelevant actions both when they were modeled by a communicative and pedagogical experimenter and when they were modeled by a non-communicative and non-pedagogical experimenter. However, children stopped using the previously learned irrelevant actions only when they were subsequently shown the more efficient way to achieve the goal by a pedagogical experimenter. Thus, communication leads preschoolers to adapt their imitative behavior but does not seem to affect overimitation in the first place. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of communication for the transmission of cultural knowledge during development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Stefanie Hoehl
- Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
| | - Martin Zettersten
- Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Hanna Schleihauf
- Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sabine Grätz
- Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sabina Pauen
- Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|