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Description
The role of spatial, cognitive and perceptual processes in language learning has become a focal point in language acquisition research. During language learning, infants utilize these processes to learn different types of words as well as relationships between words and objects. Recent interest relates to the involvement of these processes in learning words that refer to spatial relationships as well as manners and paths of motion. Of interest in the present study was whether toddlers recognize paths of motion embedded in different event contexts and whether recognition can be facilitated by associating paths with novel labels. Habituation and Preferential Looking data were collected on 26 18-month olds and 26 24-month olds recruited from the San Diego community. Toddlers were randomly assigned to a novel or no-word condition and habituated to a video of a single path (up, over, down, under). Each path took place in the context of a simple structure made from Duplo™ blocks. These structures connected to form complex, 3-path, events. Attention to familiar events including the habituated path relative to novel events was assessed in a Preferential Looking paradigm, which used looking times to measure the efficacy of the label in facilitating attention to the familiar path. It was predicted that labeling a spatial relationship would facilitate attention to that relationship across distinct events. As expected, 24-montholds provided with a novel label looked longer at familiar event videos. However, 18-montholds provided with a novel label did not look significantly longer at videos containing the familiar action compared to 18-month-olds not provided with a novel label. These results indicate that the ability to map a label onto a spatial relationship with little experience differs as a function of age. Directions for future research include examining the effect of a behavioral training session on looking times as well as confirming the results with a larger sample.
