The ability to compare objects according to discrete dimensions such as size, color or shape seems basic to human intelligence. However, developmental research indicates that knowledge of dimensions is complex and emerges gradually throughout the preschool and early school years. This reserach investigates a componential model in which an understanding of identity, wholistic similarity, attribute, dimension, direction, intensive order, and continuity comprises the structural core of dimensional knowledge. The proposed project tests the developmental independence of these components and their order of acquisition. Performance in verbal and nonverbal tasks will be compared to provide a complete description of the development of dimensional concepts. Certain aspects of this growth may reflect experience with objects, other aspects may reflect experience with language. Children aged 2-8 will be the primary participants. In addition language-disordered children and adults will participate in some studies. The experiments of Project I compare children's conceptual knowledge of relations and their acquisitions of the words that refer to relations. Conceptual knowledge will be assessed in an immitation task that requires abstract inferences about relations. Word knowledge will be measured by verbally asking children to select objects specified by attribute or relation, e.g. """"""""Find the big one"""""""", """"""""Which two are the same."""""""" Project II examines children's knwoledge of relations via learning tasks, reasoning tasks and seriation tasks. Project III investigates the development of relational language and relational concepts in language-disordered children and in children learning a first language other than English. Project IV investigates the perception of relations in children and adults in order to understand the development of the mechanisms that underly the developmental growth in relational knowledge. Since aspects of dimensional knowledge are crucial components of mathematics and inferential reasoning, this project will contribute to educational programming for all children and special populations such as that of language-disordered children.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Modified Research Career Development Award (K04)
Project #
5K04HD000589-04
Application #
3073158
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 1 (HUD)
Project Start
1984-07-01
Project End
1989-06-30
Budget Start
1987-07-01
Budget End
1988-06-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1987
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Indiana University Bloomington
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
006046700
City
Bloomington
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47402
Johnston, J R; Smith, L B; Box, P (1997) Cognition and communication: referential strategies used by preschoolers with specific language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 40:964-74
Jones, S S; Smith, L B; Landau, B (1991) Object properties and knowledge in early lexical learning. Child Dev 62:499-516
Sena, R; Smith, L B (1990) New evidence on the development of the word big. Child Dev 61:1034-52
Smith, L B (1989) A model of perceptual classification in children and adults. Psychol Rev 96:125-44
Johnston, J R; Smith, L B (1989) Dimensional thinking in language impaired children. J Speech Hear Res 32:33-8
Sera, M D; Troyer, D; Smith, L B (1988) What do two-year-olds know about the sizes of things? Child Dev 59:1489-96