Manipulation Knowledge of Objects as a Principle of Lexical Organization in Toddlers

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Around the second year of life, toddlers experience a vocabulary spurt, a sudden increase in the number of their spoken words. These words are not learned in isolation: studies have found that they are organized according to multiple domains, including the perceptual (Mani et al., 2013), taxonomic/associative (Arias-Trejo & Plunkett, 2013), and phonological (Mani et al., 2012). These studies show the important features of words and their referents in lexical organization in general, but these features also have specific importance for different referents (Cree & McRae, 2003). The function of an inanimate object seems to be a fundamental aspect of its representation (Warrington & Shallice, 1984). Functional information is the knowledge not only about the purpose of an object, but also about how to manipulate it. This information is a principle of organization in adults (Myung et al., 2006), but it is not clear whether toddlers can also use such information to organize their lexicon. The aim of this study was thus to determine whether knowledge about the manipulation of objects is used by 24-month-old toddlers to organize their lexicon. In a preferential looking experiment, 28 two-year-old (M = 24.18, SD = 0.37, range: 23.53-24.97; 19 males) were shown a visual display with an auditory prime, followed by the simultaneous presentation of target and distractor images in one of two conditions. In the Related condition, the target and the prime were related by common manipulation features, such as a piano and computer, which involve the use of similar motor plans. In the Unrelated condition, the target was unrelated to the prime, for example a piano and a plant. It was assumed that if the Related target was activated by the prime, toddlers would look more at the Related than the Unrelated target. The proportion of target looking (PTL) was determined for each condition. A one-sample t-test showed that toddlers looked above chance level (.5) at the Related (t(27) = 3.53, p = 0.002) but not the Unrelated target (t(27) = 1.50, p = 0.14); however, there was no significant difference between conditions according to a paired t-test (t(27) = 1.70, p = 0.09). To explore the time-course of the priming effect, the fixations were analyzed using a non-parametric cluster-based statistic. The time results showed that toddlers looked more quickly at the Related (950 ms) than the Unrelated condition (1400 ms). The results thus revealed that knowledge about the manipulation of objects is integrated into lexical organization as early as 24 months of age. In early childhood, this type of lexical organization facilitates access to meaning among referents that involve the use of similar motor plans.

Authors

• Armando Quetzalcóatl Angulo-Chavira, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
  Presenting Author

• Natalia Arias-Trejo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
  Non-Presenting Author