Abstract
What role does attention to different object properties play in early vocabulary development? This longitudinal study using event-related potentials in combination with behavioral measures investigated 20- and 24-month-olds' (n = 38; n = 34; overlapping n = 24) ability to use object shape and object part information in word-object mapping. The N400 component was used to measure semantic priming by images containing shape or detail information. At 20 months, the N400 to words primed by object shape varied in topography and amplitude depending on vocabulary size, and these differences predicted productive vocabulary size at 24 months. At 24 months, when most of the children had vocabularies of several hundred words, the relation between vocabulary size and the N400 effect in a shape context was weaker. Detached object parts did not function as word primes regardless of age or vocabulary size, although the part-objects were identified behaviorally. The behavioral measure, however, also showed relatively poor recognition of the part-objects compared to the shape-objects. These three findings provide new support for the link between shape recognition and early vocabulary development.
Highlights
IntroductionThe present study used online electrophysiological measures of semantic processing to investigate how toddlers are able to use visual information of overall object shape or separate object features to activate meaning and word representations
What visual cues do children use when learning the meaning of words? The present study used online electrophysiological measures of semantic processing to investigate how toddlers are able to use visual information of overall object shape or separate object features to activate meaning and word representations
A process through which children are able to map a novel word to its referent after very little exposure, seems to be linked to this rapid increase in vocabulary growth
Summary
The present study used online electrophysiological measures of semantic processing to investigate how toddlers are able to use visual information of overall object shape or separate object features to activate meaning and word representations. A process through which children are able to map a novel word to its referent after very little exposure, seems to be linked to this rapid increase in vocabulary growth. Children as a group undergo an acceleration of the rate of word learning around 18 months, often termed the vocabulary spurt, individual children may show a more continuous vocabulary growth, or several separable spurts (Fenson et al, 1994; Dick et al, 2008). The general acceleration of word learning has been attributed to qualitative changes making the learning process more efficient (e.g., Markman, 1990, 1992; Nazzi and Bertoncini, 2003), or alternatively improvements in domain-general learning abilities (e.g., McMurray, 2007; Mayor and Plunkett, 2010)
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