Deeds not Words? Dynamics in Word and Action Learning during Early Childhood
von Sarah Fé Vivian Eiteljörge
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2019-09-20
Erschienen:2019-10-08
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Nivedita Mani
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Nivedita Mani
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Birgit Elsner
Dateien
Name:Thesis_seiteljoerge.pdf
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Format:PDF
Zusammenfassung
Englisch
Children grow up in a complex, multimodal environment and need to extract information from this environment to learn about the world. When caregivers interact with their children, they often use words and actions concurrently, and this might influence children’s processing of words and actions. In this thesis, we investigated children’s and adults’ learning of words and actions for objects in multimodal contexts to understand the interactions between the child and the environment during learning in early development. In the first study, we explored the developmental trajectory of word and action learning. 12-month-olds learned to associate actions but not words with objects, 24-month-olds learned neither word- nor action-object associations, 36-month-olds learned to associate words but not actions with objects, and adults learned to associate both words and actions with objects. Thus, children developed from learning action-object to word-object to both associations. A possible reason for this observation could be that the participants’ individual preferences influenced their word and action learning differently across age groups. In the second study, we therefore investigated how the learner’s own preferences can influence learning of words and actions for objects. We replicated the findings from Study 1 showing that 24- to 36-month-olds learned word-object but not action-object associations, while adults learned both associations. Furthermore, children’s preferences influenced their target looking in the word-object, but not in the action-object condition, and adults’ preferences influenced target looking in the action, but not in the word condition. Thus, participants’ preferences influenced their processing of information but did not influence learning. In addition to the individual preferences, how the two domains are presented might influence learning. Thus, in the third study, we investigated the cross-domain influences between words and actions during children’s word learning. Between 30 and 42 months, consistency in the co-occurrence of actions in contrast to variability in the co-occurrence supported children’s wordobject association learning. Adults learned such associations independent of the actions presented. Accordingly, the structure of the input influenced learning in toddlerhood but its influence decreased with age. In summary, this thesis sheds light on the trajectory of word and action learning in development, how the learner’s preferences influence learning, and how words and actions influence each other during learning. Therefore, this thesis illustrates interactions between the learner, her changing interests and competences, and the environment, and its form and complexity, and thereby reflects the dynamic development of learning. As such, this thesis provides supporting evidence for theories that postulate interactions between different levels of an organism and the environment across time as the basis of development.
Keywords: word learning; action learning; child development