Poster #51 - The Effect of Partner-Initiated and Infant-Initiated Joint Attention on Word Learning

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Children’s engagement in joint attention requires them to coordinate attention with another partner (‘partner’ refers to interactant, e.g., parent or experimenter) onto a third entity (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986). The attention of people who get involved can be shared, followed-into and directed (Carpenter et al., 1998). The episodes of joint attention in prelinguistic period are thought to promote lexical acquisition since engaging in these episodes enables children’s understanding of other’s referential intentions, thus enhancing word-object mapping (Akhtar, 2005; Baldwin, 1993; Mundy et al., 2007; Scaife & Bruner, 1975; Tomasello & Farrar, 1986; Tomasello & Todd, 1983). To share attention, children may adopt various skills, including initiating and responding to joint attentional bids (RJA) (Mundy et al., 2007; Mundy et al., 2003). Partners demonstrate strategies for regulating children’s attention: directing or following in (Tomasello & Todd, 1983; Tomasello & Farrar, 1986). It might seem controversial if comparing the results. Children’s performance in RJA displayed a consistent positive prediction on subsequent language abilities (Mundy et al., 2007), whereas in another study set, partner’s directiveness mainly is not correlated or even negatively correlated with children’s vocabulary size (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986). It may not be the case if considering variability of children’s performance in RJA.
The current study compares the effect of three ways in which children get involved in joint attention on word learning. We would work with 72 children in a specific age group within 12- to 18-months of age. We established three semi-natural interactive conditions, i.e., follow, share, and direct, each with two to three trials. In a trial, a child plays toy sets with an experimenter. The experimenter provides a pseudoword when child is 1) looking at, 2) sharing, or 3) being directed to a target. Word comprehension is tested right after. Children’s performance will be video-taped and coded.
Our first hypothesis is children's performance in the word learning task may vary across three conditions. Children can learn words significantly more while their attention is being followed into than being directed by the interactant when pseudowords are present. We also want to compare child and parent initiations by answering: Do follow and share initiation types, similarly or differentially, impact on children's word learning?
Further, if children on average learned less toys in direct condition, we would investigate a second hypothesis that word learning might be impacted upon whether child follows experimenter’s direction. Across trials, if children successfully look at the target when being directed to, they may learn word better than when they don't look at all.
So far, we have created standardised protocol and started piloting. We would test all participants by the end of 2022. We would establish logistic (binomial) mixed effect models to compare word comprehension between conditions.
This study is expected to enrich the current literature by revealing the effects of parent and child initiations of joint attention on children’s word learning. The effects would motivate clinicians to implement relevant elements in parent-child interaction intervention.

Authors

• Senyu Chen, University of Manchester
  Presenting Author

• Alissa Ferry, University of Manchester

• Anna Theakston, University of Manchester