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

• 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
• ISSN: 0364-0213; 1551-6709
• DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12262

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.