Project Details
Projekt
Cross-domain influences on early word and action learning
Subject Area
General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Term
from 2015 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 258522519
Communicating with experienced others is an important way young children learn about the world surrounding them. Communication with infants is inherently multimodal – we not only provide them with spoken language input, but we also provide them with other visual, gestural cues to the content of our interaction. Multimodal input can highlight certain aspects of demonstrated information and can therefore support young children’s learning in social contexts. During the first funding period, we examined potential interactions between language and action in early-childhood development, with a special focus on whether information from one domain can influence processing of information in the other domain. For word learning, we focused on word-object-associations, for action learning, on action-object associations (which are relevant for tool use). The results from the first funding period contribute increasing evidence for a u-shaped pattern to the interaction between information from different domains when young children learn to associate objects with words or actions: Information from one domain (e.g. action) fosters learning in the other domain (e.g., word-object associations) in preverbal infants (during the first year of life) and in older children (from 2 to 3 years on) but not at intermediate ages, where children are developing proficiency in action and word learning. Against this background, the proposed research for the second funding period will study the early ontogeny and later development of cross-domain influences on early word and action learning, as well as examine factors that foster further cross-domain influences across development. In particular, we will examine whether increasing familiarity with the kinds of actions or words being presented, or increasing linguistic or action proficiency leads to children differentially prioritising action or linguistic input, and the effects of such prioritisation on action and word learning. Together with the results from the first funding period, the planned studies will allow us to chart the development of multimodal information processing in young children and examine the cross-domain influence of such information on young children’s word and action learning. Especially against the background of the rich content of our interactions with children, the planned research will deliver important insights into how communication with children can be tailored to their developmental needs and their selective interests.
DFG Programme
Research Units
