This research examines changes in lexical access and naming in young children near the end of their second year. During this time, children show an unprecedented increase in the rate and number of new words they produce. Concomitant to this increase is a transitory rise in perseverative naming errors. These errors involve the names of familiar objects that have been said correctly by the child on past occasion. The changing pattern of the errors provides a unique window onto the structure and processes of the lexicon as it emerges in the course of early word learning. The findings from this research will extend existing models of speech production by accounting for developments in the word retrieval operations of very young children just learning to talk. The principal goals of this research are: (1) To test predictions about the sensitivity of children to the occurrence of perseverative naming errors. I will induce children's naming errors experimentally through small perturbations in the language processing system. (2) To determine the effects of differential practice in comprehending and producing words on the frequency of the error. I will use a microgenetic design to manipulate children's experience hearing and saying individual words. (3) To provide evidence for the claim that the rise and fall of errors is unique to the developmental period of initial word learning. I will test the naming performance of children who have productive vocabularies that are considerably beyond the early spurt in lexical growth.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD039424-01
Application #
6191160
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-3 (01))
Program Officer
Mccardle, Peggy D
Project Start
2000-08-12
Project End
2003-06-30
Budget Start
2000-08-12
Budget End
2001-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$130,986
Indirect Cost
Name
Carnegie-Mellon University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
052184116
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Gershkoff-Stowe, Lisa; Hahn, Erin R (2007) Fast mapping skills in the developing lexicon. J Speech Lang Hear Res 50:682-97
Gershkoff-Stowe, Lisa; Connell, Brenda; Smith, Linda (2006) Priming overgeneralizations in two- and four-year-old children. J Child Lang 33:461-86
Gershkoff-Stowe, Lisa; Smith, Linda B (2004) Shape and the first hundred nouns. Child Dev 75:1098-114