ERIC Number: EJ1028696
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1524-8372
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Attention to Explicit and Implicit Contrast in Verb Learning
Childers, Jane B.; Hirshkowitz, Amy; Benavides, Kristin
Journal of Cognition and Development, v15 n2 p213-237 2014
Contrast information could be useful for verb learning, but few studies have examined children's ability to use this type of information. Contrast may be useful when children are told explicitly that different verbs apply, or when they hear two different verbs in a single context. Three studies examine children's attention to different types of contrast as they learn new verbs. Study 1 shows that 3.5-year-olds can use both implicit contrast ("I'm meeking it. I'm koobing it.") and explicit contrast ("I'm meeking it. I'm not meeking it.") when learning a new verb, while a control group's responses did not differ from chance. Study 2 shows that even though children at this age who hear explicit contrast statements differ from a control group, they do not reliably "extend" a newly learned verb to events with new objects. In Study 3, children in three age groups were given both comparison and contrast information, not in blocks of trials as in past studies, but in a procedure that interleaved both cues. Results show that while 2.5-year-olds were unable to use these cues when asked to compare and contrast, by 3.5 years old, children are beginning to be able to process these cues and use them to influence their verb extensions, and by 4.5 years, children are proficient at integrating multiple cues when learning and extending new verbs. Together these studies examine children's use of contrast in verb learning, a potentially important source of information that has been rarely studied.
Descriptors: Verbs, Language Acquisition, Control Groups, Cues, Comparative Analysis, Cognitive Ability, Cognitive Processes, Age Differences, Task Analysis, Toddlers, Vocabulary Development, Coding, Measures (Individuals), Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A