No Evidence for Language Benefits in Infant Relational Learning
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| Title: | No Evidence for Language Benefits in Infant Relational Learning |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Erin M. Anderson, Yin-Juei Chang, Susan Hespos, Dedre Gentner |
| Source: | Grantee Submission. 2022 66. |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 17 |
| Publication Date: | 2022 |
| Sponsoring Agency: | National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Office of Naval Research (ONR) (DOD) Institute of Education Sciences (ED) |
| Contract Number: | 1423917 1729720 0541957 N000141612613 R305B140042 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Infants, Language Acquisition, Learning Processes, Object Permanence, Naming, Age Differences, Prediction, Developmental Stages, Puppetry, Prior Learning, Habituation, Task Analysis, Visual Stimuli, Novelty (Stimulus Dimension) |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101666 |
| ISSN: | 0163-6383 |
| Abstract: | Recent studies have found that infants show relational learning in the first year. Like older children, they can abstract relations such as "same" or "different" across a series of exemplars. For older children, language has a major impact on relational learning: labeling a shared relation facilitates learning, while labeling component objects can disrupt learning. Here we ask: Does language influence relational learning at 12 months? Experiment 1 (n = 64) examined the influence of a relational label on learning. Prior to the study, the infants saw three pairs of objects, all labeled "These are 'same'" or "These are 'different'". Experiment 2 (n = 48) examined the influence of object labels prior to the study, with three objects labeled (e.g., "This is a cup, this is a tower."). We compared the present results with those of Ferry et al. (2015), where infants abstracted "same" and "different" relations after undergoing a similar paradigm without prior labels. If the effects of language mirror those in older children, we would expect that infants given relational labels (Experiment 1) will be helped in abstracting "same" and "different" compared to infants not given labels and that infants given object labels (Experiment 2) will be hindered relative to those not given labels. We found no evidence for either prediction. In Experiment 1, infants who had heard relational labels did not benefit compared to infants who had received no labels (Ferry et al., 2015). In Experiment 2, infants who had heard object labels showed the same patterns as those in Ferry et al. (2015), suggesting that object labels had no effect. This finding is important because it highlights a key difference between the relational learning abilities of infants and those seen in older children, pointing to a protracted process by which language and relational learning become entwined. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| IES Funded: | Yes |
| Entry Date: | 2024 |
| Accession Number: | ED661903 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Recent studies have found that infants show relational learning in the first year. Like older children, they can abstract relations such as "same" or "different" across a series of exemplars. For older children, language has a major impact on relational learning: labeling a shared relation facilitates learning, while labeling component objects can disrupt learning. Here we ask: Does language influence relational learning at 12 months? Experiment 1 (n = 64) examined the influence of a relational label on learning. Prior to the study, the infants saw three pairs of objects, all labeled "These are 'same'" or "These are 'different'". Experiment 2 (n = 48) examined the influence of object labels prior to the study, with three objects labeled (e.g., "This is a cup, this is a tower."). We compared the present results with those of Ferry et al. (2015), where infants abstracted "same" and "different" relations after undergoing a similar paradigm without prior labels. If the effects of language mirror those in older children, we would expect that infants given relational labels (Experiment 1) will be helped in abstracting "same" and "different" compared to infants not given labels and that infants given object labels (Experiment 2) will be hindered relative to those not given labels. We found no evidence for either prediction. In Experiment 1, infants who had heard relational labels did not benefit compared to infants who had received no labels (Ferry et al., 2015). In Experiment 2, infants who had heard object labels showed the same patterns as those in Ferry et al. (2015), suggesting that object labels had no effect. This finding is important because it highlights a key difference between the relational learning abilities of infants and those seen in older children, pointing to a protracted process by which language and relational learning become entwined. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0163-6383 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101666 |
