2-134 - Analogy and child language

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Two primary ways in which human cognition is distinct from other animals is our capacity for language and our ability to reason analogically (Penn, Holyoak, & Povinelli, 2008). This is no coincidence. It has become increasingly clear that language and analogy are inter-dependent (Gentner, 2003). That is, analogical learning supports language development, and language further scaffolds analogical thinking. In this symposium we advance this literature by investigating: 1. How analogical mechanisms foster verb learning, 2. How analogical mapping supports children’s s fluent engagement in dialogue, and 3. How the onset of analogical reasoning in infancy is related to language production.

Analogical thinking entails recognizing the commonalities in the relationships between entities, even if the entities themselves are quite distinct. Often though, young children need commonalities in the superficial qualities of objects and events to help them discover deeper relational similarity (Gentner & Rattermann, 1991). However, once children notice that deeper similarity, they then may recognize the same relational structure in situations without such superficial similarity. The first two talks capitalize on this consistent pattern, and show how superficial similarity can bootstrap children’s verb learning and sentence production (respectively). The third takes a complementary approach by 1. demonstrating the youngest on record case of children’s ability to find relational commonalities among sets of objects and 2. relating this ability to their growing relational vocabulary. Our discussant will then integrate the three talks into a common theoretical framework with computational simulations using models of analogical development.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Micah B Goldwater, University of Sydney

Discussant

• Leonidas A. A. Doumas, University of Edinburgh

Individual Presentations

• Examining Two Key Predictions from Structural Alignment Theory in Verb Learning - Presenting Author: Jane B Childers, Trinity University; Tyler Howard, Trinity University; Angeline Bottera, Trinity University

• Structural priming as analogical mapping: How high similarity sentences foster alignment in young children’s dialogue - Presenting Author: Micah B Goldwater, University of Sydney; Catharine H. Echols, University of Texas at Austin

• Language acquisition & the onset of relational reasoning - Presenting Author: Alison Gopnik, Univ of California-Berkeley; Caren M. Walker, University of California, Berkeley