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<p>This work presents two studies of language processing and development in children. The first study focuses on passive sentence comprehension in 4-5-year-old children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and same-age peers with typical development (TD). We explore the effect of animacy, morphosyntactic, vocabulary, and event probability cues on children’s offline comprehension and online processing of passive sentences using an eye-tracked looking-while-listening design. The children were first exposed to short videos of agents doing characteristic actions (e.g., hard physical activities or passively observant activities). The children then engaged in an eye-tracked online processing task in which they heard reversible and nonreversible passive sentences describing events that matched or did not match the characteristics set up in the exposure videos. During these sentences, images on-screen were displayed that corresponded to the potential interpretations of the sentence. Online processing data was collected using eye tracking. After each sentence, the children were asked to point to the image corresponding to their interpretation to measure their offline comprehension. The offline comprehension data indicated that compared to the children with TD, the children with DLD were less likely to correctly interpret the passive sentences and made comprehension errors that suggested poorer attention to and integration of potentially informative sentence cues. The eye-tracked online processing data was examined in two ways. First, we analyzed the online processing data to determine to what extent the children’s processing was consistent with the use of the sentence cues. We found that the children in the two groups were just as likely to demonstrate looking patterns consistent with the use animacy cues but children with DLD were less likely to use morphosyntactic, vocabulary, and event probability cues. We then analyzed the online processing data in correctly interpreted sentences only to examine how the sentence cues were integrated over the course of the sentence. We found that in correctly interpreted sentences, children with DLD demonstrated a slower, less robust response to most of the informative cues in the sentences but quicker and less linguistically mediated use of event probability cues. Finally, we examined the relationship between the children’s use of event probability cues and their stimuli-specific vocabulary knowledge but found no strong associations. </p><p><br></p><p> The second study focuses on the semantic network structure of the vocabularies of young 18-30-month-old children and its influence on noun and verb learning. Prior work had examined how noun semantic network structure affects noun learning. Here, we extended that work to ask how noun and verb semantic network structures differ in their influence on noun and verb learning. We examined vocabulary network structure at the word, semantic neighborhood, and lexicon levels in a large sample of child vocabulary checklist data using semantic features. We analyzed the data in three ways. First, we charted the relationship between verb and noun semantic network structure and vocabulary size across children. We found that early-learned nouns tended to have strong network relationships with other nouns and other verbs across network levels. We also found that early-learned verbs tended to have strong network relationships with other nouns but, in contrast, were unlikely to have strong relationships with other verbs. Next, we examined patterns of normative vocabulary development, asking whether the cross-sectional patterns seen in the first analysis influenced the time at which nouns and verbs tended to be learned. We found similar patterns. Nouns with strong semantic connections to other nouns and other verbs tended to be learned early. Verbs with strong semantic connections to other nouns tended to be learned early but verbs with strong semantic connections to other verbs tended to be learned later. Finally, in an effort to determine how the very earliest vocabulary knowledge sets the stage for later word learning, we examined how word knowledge gaps formed and were filled by nouns and verbs in normative vocabulary development. These gaps corresponded to structured “cavities” in the semantic networks. We found that nouns tended to form semantic cavities that were later filled by nouns and verbs, reinforcing the findings from the first analyses that early noun knowledge is a prerequisite for later verb learning. </p>

The world in which we live is filled with sensory experiences. Language provides us with a manner in which to communicate these experiences with one another. In order to partake in this communication, it is necessary to acquire labels for things we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. Much is known about how we learn words for things we can see, but this bias in the literature leaves many open questions about words attributed to other modalities. This cumulative dissertation aims to close this gap by investigating how both 10- to-12-month old infants and adults map novel pseudowords onto environmental sounds in an auditory associative word learning task with the aim to explore how humans learn words for things that cannot be seen, such as thunder, siren, and, lullaby. Infants were found, via event-related potentials (ERPs), to be successful at auditory associative word learning, while adults are much stronger learners in multimodal audio-visual conditions. Across the lifespan, sensory modality was found to affect word learning differently in infants than in adults. Where infants benefitted from unimodal auditory word learning, adults were more successful in multimodal audiovisual paradigms. Furthermore, the modality of the object being labelled modulated the temporal onset and the topological distribution of the N400 ERP component of violated lexical-semantic expectation. Lastly, the temporal congruency of presented stimuli affected word learning in adults in an inverted manner to other forms of statistical learning. Word learning is sensitive to age, modality, and means of presentation, providing evidence for various intertwined learning mechanisms and bringing us a step closer towards understanding human linguistic cognition.

We propose the fuzzy lexical representations (FLRs) hypothesis that regards fuzziness as a core property of nonnative (L2) lexical representations (LRs). Fuzziness refers to imprecise encoding at different levels of LRs and interacts with input frequency during lexical processing and learning in adult L2 speakers. The FLR hypothesis primarily focuses on the encoding of spoken L2 words. We discuss the causes of fuzzy encoding of phonological form and meaning as well as fuzzy form-meaning mappings and the consequences of fuzzy encoding for word storage and retrieval. A central factor contributing to the fuzziness of L2 LRs is the fact that the L2 lexicon is acquired when the L1 lexicon is already in place. There are two immediate consequences of such sequential learning. First, L2 phonological categorization difficulties lead to fuzzy phonological form encoding. Second, the acquisition of L2 word forms subsequently to their meanings, which had already been acquired together with the L1 word forms, leads to weak L2 form-meaning mappings. The FLR hypothesis accounts for a range of phenomena observed in L2 lexical processing, including lexical confusions, slow lexical access, retrieval of incorrect lexical entries, weak lexical competition, reliance on sublexical rather than lexical heuristics in word recognition, the precedence of word form over meaning, and the prominence of detailed, even if imprecisely encoded, information about LRs in episodic memory. The main claim of the FLR hypothesis – that the quality of lexical encoding is a product of a complex interplay between fuzziness and input frequency – can contribute to increasing the efficiency of the existing models of LRs and lexical access.

The current thesis has two aims to further the understanding of the cognitive underpinnings that are involved in word-learning and language processing. One aim is to understand how individuals are able to make temporary phonological and serial order representations of new words in language and non-language domains. The second aim is to investigate whether the mechanisms involved in maintaining temporary nonverbal and serial order representations are related to verbal short-term abilities. We created four behavioural tasks to determine the processing of phonological short-term memory information, nonverbal short-term memory information, serial order short-term memory information and rhythmic short-term memory. We used 30 adult Spanish-English bilinguals as the target population to also investigate whether individual language abilities in two spoken languages affect the learning of words in a foreign language with distinct prosody and phonology. The first correlational analysis revealed that performance on a serially ordered verbal short-term memory task that involved a language of unfamiliar prosody and phonology was strongly predicted by performance on two serially ordered verbal short-term memory tasks that involved languages of familiar prosody and phonology. A second correlational analysis showed that tasks that tapped into individuals’ memory for serial order in the verbal, nonverbal and rhythmic domains were weakly associated with one another. In a third correlational analysis, it was shown that individuals’ lexical knowledge of Spanish was not a predictor of their performance on a measure of their serially ordered verbal short-term memory abilities. Multiple linear regression analyses found that none of the tasks that were used to measure individuals’ abilities for processing serial order information in the verbal, nonverbal and rhythmic domain were strong predictors for foreign-word learning. Overall, the results show promising findings for the tasks that tapped into serial order short-term memory for verbal information. However, they also suggest that the nonverbal and rhythm tasks may not be reliable measures of the constructs we were hoping to study. Future work should adjust the tasks to ensure we are properly tapping into individuals’ serial order abilities in the nonverbal and rhythm domains. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Recent modeling work shows that patterns of shared perceptual features relate to the group-level order of acquisition of early-learned words (Peters & Borovsky, 2019). Here we present results for two eye-tracked word recognition studies showing patterns of shared perceptual features likewise influence processing of known and novel noun-concepts in individual 24- to 30-month-old toddlers. In the first study (Chapter 2, N=54), we explored the influence of perceptual connectivity on both initial attentional biases to known objects and subsequent label processing. In the second study (Chapter 3, N=49), we investigated whether perceptual connectivity influences patterns of attention during learning opportunities for novel object-features and object-labels, subsequent pre-labeling attentional biases, and object-label learning outcomes. Results across studies revealed four main findings. First, patterns of shared (visual-motion and visual-form and surface) perceptual features do relate to differences in early noun-concept processing at the individual level. Second, such influences are tentatively at play from the outset of novel noun-concept learning. Third, connectivity driven attentional biases to both recently learned and well-known objects follow a similar timecourse and show similar patterns of individual differences. Fourth, initial, pre-labeling attentional biases to objects relate to subsequent label processing, but do not linearly explain effects of connectivity. Finally, we consider whether these findings provide support for shared-feature-guided selective attention to object features as a mechanism underlying early lexico-semantic development.

Les avantages liés à la formation musicale transfèrent au traitement du langage, et à certaines fonctions perceptives et cognitives. Nous examinons si cette formation facilite aussi l'apprentissage de mots nouveaux au long de la vie. Les enfants «musiciens» et les jeunes musiciens professionnels surpassent les participants de contrôle dans une série d’expériences, avec une plasticité cérébrale plus rapide, et une connectivité fonctionnelle plus forte, mesurées par électroencéphalographie. Les résultats des musiciens plus âgés sont moins clairs, suggérant un impact limité de la formation musicale sur le déclin cognitif. Enfin, les jeunes musiciens ont une meilleure mémoire à long terme des nouveaux mots, ce qui contribuerait à expliquer l’avantage observé. Ces effets de transfert de la formation musicale au niveau sémantique et de la mémoire à long terme révèlent l’importance des fonctions cognitives générales et ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives pour l’éducation et la rééducation. / Based on results evidencing music training-related advantages on speech processing, perceptive and cognitive functions, we examine whether music training facilitates novel word learning throughout the lifespan. We show that musically-trained children and young professional musicians outperform controls in a series of experiments, with faster brain plasticity and stronger functional connectivity, as measured by electroencephalography. By contrast, advantages for old adult musicians are less clear-cut, suggesting a limited impact of music training to counteract cognitive decline. Finally, young musicians show better long-term memory for novel words, which possibly contributes, along with better auditory perception and attention, to their advantage in word learning. By showing transfer effects from music training to semantic processing and long-term memory, results reveal the importance of domain-general cognitive functions and open new perspectives for education and rehabilitation.

As contingências verbais promovidas pelo ambiente da educação infantil são importantes para que crianças pré-escolares desenvolvam seus repertórios verbais. Estudos indicam que a leitura compartilhada de histórias (LCH) tem efeitos significativos no desenvolvimento desses repertórios, principalmente quando associada a estratégias de ensino explícito de vocabulário. Porém, muitos educadores não têm conhecimento sobre essas estratégias e sobre como ocorre a aprendizagem a partir da LCH. Este trabalho, composto por três estudos, teve dois objetivos gerais: identificar as principais estratégias de LCH empregadas para o ensino explícito de palavras a crianças pré-escolares, estudadas pela literatura; e elaborar e implementar duas intervenções: uma delas voltada diretamente para crianças pré-escolares, e outra para professoras da Educação Infantil, ambas focadas no ensino de palavras por meio da leitura compartilhada de histórias. O Estudo 1 consistiu em uma revisão integrativa das estratégias de LCH testadas como prática de ensino publicadas em diferentes bases de dados entre 2006 e 2016. Foram analisados 13 artigos e foi possível identificar que todas as estratégias analisadas foram correlacionadas positivamente com ganhos por parte das crianças em diversas habilidades linguísticas. O Estudo 2 teve como objetivo testar os efeitos cumulativos do uso de estratégias de ensino de palavras a partir de sessões de LCH na aprendizagem de palavras por crianças pré-escolares. Foram realizadas três sessões de leitura compartilhada de uma mesma história e uma sessão composta por uma atividade complementar sobre as palavras da história lida, em uma classe de 13 crianças de 4 a 5 anos. Em cada sessão foi implementada uma estratégia de ensino de substantivos e verbos: Destacar a palavra-alvo, Explicar o significado da palavra-alvo, Iniciar conversas sobre a palavra-alvo e Atividades Complementares. Foi possível identificar ganhos significativos (p<0,05) das crianças em tarefas de emparelhamento ao modelo para substantivos e ganhos muito significativos (p<0,01) nas tarefas de nomeação tanto para substantivos quanto para verbos, na comparação entre medidas de pré e pós-teste. O Estudo 3 testou os efeitos de um programa de desenvolvimento profissional sobre estratégias de ensino de palavras a partir de LCH no uso dessas estratégias por parte de três professoras (medida primária) e na aprendizagem de palavras por parte das crianças, alunas dessas professoras (medida secundária). O programa de desenvolvimento profissional foi composto por um workshop sobre estratégias de ensino de palavras a partir de LCH e sessões de consultoria colaborativa, testados em um delineamento de linha de base múltipla. Foi possível identificar um aumento no uso de estratégias por parte das professoras após o workshop, além de manutenção e aumento desse uso durante os períodos Atividade de Contação de História e Atividades Complementares, respectivamente, após a implementação das sessões de consultoria colaborativa. Verificou-se, também, ganhos muito significativos (p>0,01) por parte das crianças nas tarefas de emparelhamento e definição de palavras. Além disso, as sessões de consultoria colaborativa permitiram a identificação de problemas vivenciados pelas professoras que influenciam, tanto em atividades cotidianas em sala de aula, quanto nas atividades propostas por esse estudo. O conjunto dos estudos confirmou a eficácia da LCH para ensino de repertórios verbais a crianças e apontou a necessidade de desenvolvimento de mais intervenções voltadas para professores nessa área / Verbal contingencies, promoted by early childhood education, and are important for preschool children to develop their verbal repertoires. Studies indicate that shared book reading (SBR) has a significant effect in developing there repertoires, especially when associated with explicit vocabulary teaching strategies. However, many educators have no knowledge about those strategies or about how SBR can promote learning processes. This research, composed by three studies, has two general purposes: to identify the main vocabulary-teaching strategies used during SBR with preschool children studied by the literature; and develop and implement two interventions: one applied to preschool children, and the other applied to early childhood educators, focused on vocabulary-teaching through SBR. Study 1 consisted in an integrative review of strategies used in SBR activities, tested as a teaching practice, published in different databases between 2006 and 2016. We analyzed 13 articles and identified that all strategies analyzed were positively correlated with gains in several language skills. The Study 2 aimed to test the cumulative effects in the use of word teaching strategies through SBR in word learning by preschool children. Three sessions of SBR of the same story, and one session of one complementary activity about words found in the story were implemented in a class of 13 children, from 4 to 5 years old. In each session, one teaching strategy was implemented to teach nouns and verbs: \"Highlight the target word\", \"Explain the target word\", \"Start conversations about the target word\" and \"Complementary Activities\". Significant gains (p <0.05) in matching to sample tasks for substantive and more significant gains (p <0.01) in naming tasks, between pre-test and post-test measures were identified . Study 3 tested the effects of a professional development program of word teaching strategies through SBR in measures of strategies use by three educators (primary measure) and in word learning by children in their class (secondary measure). The Professional development program was composed by a workshop about word teaching strategies trough SBR and collaborative consulting sessions, tested in a multiple baseline design. We identified a raise in strategies use by all the teachers after the workshop, and also a maintenance and a increase of this use in Telling Story Activity and Complementary Activities periods, respectively, after the implementation of collaborative consulting sessions. Significant gains (p>0,01) in childrens matching to sample and definition tasks performances were also observed. Moreover, collaborative consulting sessions allowed the identification of problems experienced by those educators that had influence, not only in everyday activities, but also activities proposed by this study. This set of studies confirm the efficacy of SBR in teaching verbal repertoires to children and pointed out the necessity of developing more interventions for educators in this area

Vorangegangene Untersuchungen zeigen, dass emotionale Inputeigenschaften (extrinsische Eigenschaften) das Erlernen neuer Wortbedeutungen bei Kindern befördern. Diese Eigenschaften sind nicht Teil des Referenten, auf den sich ein zu erlernendes Wort bezieht, z.B. der +/-fröhliche Gesichtsausdruck eines Sprechers, der ein unbekanntes Objekt mittels eines neuen Wortes benennt. Die vorliegende Studie konzentriert sich auf zwei bisher unbeachtete Fragen: a) Lassen sich ähnliche Einflüsse finden, wenn die emotionale Inputeigenschaft Teil des Referenten eines zu erlernenden Wortes ist (intrinsische Eigenschaften), z.B. der +/-fröhliche Gesichtsausdruck eines Akteurs in einer durch ein Verb benannten Handlung? b) Beeinflussen diese Eigenschaften die Bedeutung eines neuen Wortes, indem die emotionale Information mitbestimmt, wie das Wort in späteren Kontexten interpretiert wird? Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich im Einklang mit Studien zu extrinsischen Inputeigenschaften die intrinsischen Eigenschaften ebenfalls förderlich auf das Erlernen neuer Wörter bei Kindern auswirken. Darüber hinaus legt die Studie nahe, dass die Wahrnehmung emotionaler Information während des Wortlernens individueller Variabilität unterliegt. Diese beeinflusst wiederum, wie Kinder die Bedeutung des neuen Wortes konstruieren und interpretieren. Verschiedene Faktoren wie Sprachkompetenz, Aufmerksamkeitssteuerung und soziale Kognition werden diskutiert, die individuelle Unterschiede in der Wahrnehmung emotionaler Information beim Wortlernen hervorrufen könnten. / Previous research shows that emotional properties of the input (extrinsic properties) enhance children’s learning of novel words. These properties are not features of the referent a novel word is referring to, e.g. the +/-happy intonation or facial expression of a speaker, who is referring to an object or event by using a novel word. With respect to this finding, the present study focuses on two unnoticed questions: a) Are similar influences found when the emotional properties are features of the referent of the word to be acquired (intrinsic properties), e.g. the +/-happy facial expression of an actor in an event that is labeled by a novel verb? b) Do these properties influence the meaning of a novel word, in that the emotional information constrains how the word is interpreted in later contexts? The results indicate that in line with studies on extrinsic emotional properties children’s learning of novel words is enhanced by intrinsic emotional properties. Furthermore, the study suggests that children’s perception of emotional information while learning a novel word is subject to individual variability, which affects how children construct and interpret the meaning of the novel word. Different factors such as language competence, attentional control and social cognition are discussed for inducing individual differences in emotion perception while word learning.

A leitura compartilhada de livros para crianças é uma atividade que tem sido estudada como forma de ensino incidental de vocabulário, que envolve, dentre outros processos, o responder por exclusão. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi investigar a ocorrência de aprendizagem de relações entre estímulos visuais (figuras) com seus respectivos estímulos auditivos (palavras) a partir de diferentes condições de leitura compartilhada de livros para crianças com Síndrome de Down (SD) e com desenvolvimento típico (DT). Para a pesquisa foram desenvolvidos dois estudos. No Estudo 1, participaram seis crianças com SD com seis a sete anos, e seis crianças com DT com três a quatro anos (amostras pareadas em função do nível de vocabulário). Foi utilizado um livro de história produzido pela pesquisadora, no qual havia dois substantivos e dois adjetivos desconhecidos (estímulos visuais S1, S2, A1, A2), apresentados uma única vez na história. Esse livro foi lido para cada criança duas vezes em sequência por sessão e em cada sessão foi realizada uma condição de leitura diferente. Foram apresentadas três condições de leitura e cada criança passou por todas, mas em diferentes ordens (contrabalanceamento). Na Condição 1, o livro foi lido para a criança sem intervenções. Na Condição 2, o livro foi lido para a criança e ela tinha que repetir o nome dos estímulos desconhecidos. Na Condição 3, o livro foi lido e foram realizadas perguntas relacionadas aos estímulos-alvo. Ao final de cada sessão foram realizadas sondas de aprendizagem (sondas de emparelhamento ao modelo e nomeação), e após uma semana da última sessão foi aplicada uma sonda de manutenção e uma de generalização. As crianças com DT apresentaram maior número de acertos que as com SD, e os acertos foram mais relacionados ao estímulo S1. As crianças não aprenderam a relação nome-cor. A análise dos resultados sugeriu que o número de estímulos-alvo era excessivo e com apresentações insuficientes no livro. No Estudo 2 participaram seis crianças com DT de 3 a 4 anos e seis crianças com SD, de 5 a 8 anos. O procedimento utilizado no Estudo 2 foi semelhante ao primeiro com as seguintes alterações no livro: utilização de apenas duas relações-alvo (um substantivo-alvo e um adjetivo-alvo - S2 e A3), cada uma sendo apresentada três vezes ao longo da história, em figuras que possibilitavam o responder por exclusão. Também foi acrescentada uma tentativa de exclusão nas sondas de aprendizagem. Nesse estudo, todas as crianças com DT conseguiram selecionar e nomear estímulo S2 e duas mostraram indícios de aprendizagem do estímulo A3. As crianças com SD apresentaram um menor número de acertos nas sondas de emparelhamento, mas apresentaram algumas nomeações corretas, o que não foi observado no Estudo 1. Os dados sugerem que as mudanças realizadas no livro melhoram o desempenho das crianças com DT, mas não o das crianças com SD. Não foram encontradas diferenças entre as condições de leituras nos dois estudos. No entanto, são necessários estudos adicionais para avaliar essas diferentes condições e as variáveis envolvidas na aprendizagem de palavras a partir da leitura compartilhada de livro. / Shared book reading for children is an activity that has been studied as an incidental vocabulary teaching that involves, among other processes, exclusion responding. The aim of this research was to investigate the occurrence of learning of the relation between visual stimuli (figures) with their respective auditory stimuli (words) in different shared book reading conditions to Down syndrome (DS) and typical development (TD) children. This research was performed in two studies. In Study 1, participated six DS children from six to seven years old and six TD children from three to four years old (paired samples based on vocabulary level). In this study, the conductor of the experiment used a storybook produced for this research. The book contained two nouns and two unknown adjectives (visual stimuli S1, S2, A1, and A2), presented one time in the story. The conductor of the experiment read the book to every child two times in sequence for each session. In each session, the conductor of the experiment applied a different reading condition. Three reading conditions were presented in various orders (counterbalance) for each child. In Condition 1, the book was read to the child without interventions. In Condition 2, the book was read to the child, and the unknown stimuli names were asked to be repeated. In Condition 3, the book was read to the child, and questions related to the target stimuli were made. At the end of each session, learning probes (matching-to-sample and naming probes) were made. After one week of the last session, maintenance and generalization probes were applied. TD children showed more correct answers than DS children. The right answers were mostly related to S1 stimuli. No child learned name-color relations. Result analysis suggested that the target stimuli was excessive and with insufficient presentations in the book. In Study 2, participated six TD children from three to four years old and six DS children from five to eight years old. The procedure of Study 2 was similar to Study 1, except for some alterations in the book: there were only two target-relations (one target-noun and one target-adjective S2 and A3), each being presented three times along the story, in figures that allowed the exclusion responding. It was also included an attempt of exclusion in learning probes. In this Study, all TD children could select and name S2 stimuli and two children showed indications of learning of A3 stimuli. DS children showed a smaller number of correct answers in matching probes but showed some correct nominations, which were not observed in Study 1. The data suggest that the changes in the book improved the TD children performance, but not to DS children. The results showed no difference between reading conditions in both studies. However, additional studies that evaluate different conditions and variables related to word learning in shared book reading are necessary.