NIH - Linking language and cognition in infancy: Entry points and developmental change this proposal addresses fundamental issues of early language and conceptual development, and forges a precise link between them in infants' first year of life. Infants live in an enormously rich environment. Each day, they encounter new objects, while listening to a rich repertoire of sounds, including the sounds of their language. Amidst this richness, infants must identify the sounds of their native language and discover how these are linked to the world around them. Even before infants begin to speak, they identify the sounds of their language and link them to foundations of meaning. By 3 months of age, language supports infants' ability to form object categories. Initially, this link between language and cognition is quite broad: vocalizations of both human and non-human primates promote the formation of object categories. By 6 months, this link is tuned specifically to human vocalizations. The current proposal is designed to specify the scope of infants' initial link and t trace how it unfolds over the first year. Recruiting state-of-the-art analyses, this proposal will illuminate the developmental path infants take as they narrow in on the communicative signals of their species and link these signals to the foundations of meaning. Series I is designed to identify the range of signals that initially promote object categorization in human infants and how these are tuned over the first year. The studies examine infants' responses to vocalizations produced by human and non-human primates, mammals and birds, and also to manually-produced signals of sign language (ASL). Series II is designed to uncover how (and when) infants' exposure to language and other signals in the environment shapes the very possibility that they will link these signals to cognition. The studies, which examine infants' plasticity, wil pinpoint critical developmental windows for promoting language and conceptual development in all infants. Series III is designed to identify how infants come to interpret a signal (spoken or signed) as communicative. Taking infants' exquisite sensitivity to social cues (e.g., eye gaze) as a starting point, the studies consider whether infants interpret any signal (e.g., a tone sequence) as communicative if it is embedded within a rich communicative exchange. Humans are uniquely endowed with a natural capacity to build complex, flexible and creative systems of language and thought. This proposal, which forges a precise link between these systems, has far-reaching theoretical and practical implications. The proposed project broadens significantly the empirical and theoretical foundations of current research, and provides a window into the origins and evolution of infants' earliest links between conceptual and linguistic development. This work underscores the vital interaction between infants' natural endowments and the shaping role of the environment. It also builds a strong foundation for identifying infants with language delay or impairment, and serves as a springboard for designing targeted interventions to bolster their language and cognition.

Public Health Relevance

This research reveals that even before infants begin to speak, their cognitive and language capacities are powerfully linked. These early links, which set the foundation for subsequent learning, are shaped importantly by interactions between the endowments of human infants their experience - including their language and social experience. By tracing the link between language and cognition across the first year, and by examining the contributions of infants' other rapidly-developing capacities (c.f., social intuition; core conceptual processes), this basic research will offer insight into the mechanisms undergirding early development, will promote identification of early delays in language and cognitive development, and may provide a springboard for designing targeted interventions that build on infants' strengths while addressing their challenges.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD083310-05
Application #
9656883
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Griffin, James
Project Start
2015-04-08
Project End
2021-02-28
Budget Start
2019-03-01
Budget End
2021-02-28
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Northwestern University at Chicago
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
160079455
City
Chicago
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60611
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Ferguson, Brock; Graf, Eileen; Waxman, Sandra R (2018) When veps cry: Two-year-olds efficiently learn novel words from linguistic contexts alone. Lang Learn Dev 14:1-12
Perszyk, Danielle R; Ferguson, Brock; Waxman, Sandra R (2018) Maturation constrains the effect of exposure in linking language and thought: evidence from healthy preterm infants. Dev Sci 21:
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Perszyk, Danielle R; Waxman, Sandra R (2017) Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization. J Vis Exp :
Ferguson, Brock; Waxman, Sandra (2017) Linking language and categorization in infancy. J Child Lang 44:527-552
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Perszyk, Danielle R; Waxman, Sandra R (2016) Listening to the calls of the wild: The role of experience in linking language and cognition in young infants. Cognition 153:175-81