Parallels Between Action‐Object Mapping and Word‐Object Mapping in Young Children

Across a series of four experiments with 3‐ to 4‐year‐olds we demonstrate how cognitive mechanisms supporting noun learning extend to the mapping of actions to objects. In Experiment 1 (n = 61) the demonstration of a novel action led children to select a novel, rather than a familiar object. In Expe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognitive science 2016-05, Vol.40 (4), p.992-1006
Main Authors: Riggs, Kevin J., Mather, Emily, Hyde, Grace, Simpson, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actions
Child psychology
Child, Preschool
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive Mapping
Cognitive psychology
Comparative Analysis
England
Experimental psychology
Experiments
Familiarity
Fast mapping
Female
Humans
Language
Language Development
Learning - physiology
Male
Nouns
Novelty (Stimulus Dimension)
Perceptual Motor Learning
Preschool Children
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Development
Word learning
Young Children
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Summary:Across a series of four experiments with 3‐ to 4‐year‐olds we demonstrate how cognitive mechanisms supporting noun learning extend to the mapping of actions to objects. In Experiment 1 (n = 61) the demonstration of a novel action led children to select a novel, rather than a familiar object. In Experiment 2 (n = 78) children exhibited long‐term retention of novel action‐object mappings and extended these actions to other category members. In Experiment 3 (n = 60) we showed that children formed an accurate sensorimotor record of the novel action. In Experiment 4 (n = 54) we demonstrate limits on the types of actions mapped to novel objects. Overall these data suggest that certain aspects of noun mapping share common processing with action mapping and support a domain‐general account of word learning.
ISSN:0364-0213
1551-6709
DOI:10.1111/cogs.12262