Full metadata
Title
The Role of Interruption on Infant's Fast Mapping Abilities
Description
Fast mapping is the initial link infants make between a word and its referent, and it is crucial to later processes of learning the meanings of words. Despite the importance of fast mapping, previous research has suggested that fast mapping is fragile, with infants being unable to retain words learned through fast mapping longer than five minutes. The current study tested the robustness of fast mapping by imposing task irrelevant interruptions on a fast mapping task. Forty-seven infants (14.7 \u2014 17.4 months old) were assigned to a No Interruption condition, a Posture Interruption condition, or a Visual Interruption condition, and they performed a fast mapping task in which a novel object was named in one trial. Videos of the infants were coded for accuracy of fast mapping and for attentional behaviors (looking behavior) during the task. We found that infants did not learn novel word-object pairings when interrupted, demonstrating that infants' fast mapping abilities are easily disrupted. Overall, there was no evidence that looking behaviors were affected by interruptions, or that they were correlated with accuracy. These findings suggest that fast mapping is fragile in young infants, and further research is required to determine the mechanisms for infant learning, and how infants transition from fast to slow mapping processes.
Date Created
2018-12
Contributors
- Smith, Emily J (Author)
- Benitez, Viridiana (Thesis director)
- Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member)
- Department of Psychology (Contributor)
- School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
- Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
- Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Topical Subject
Resource Type
Extent
33 pages
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Series
Academic Year 2018-2019
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.50861
Level of coding
minimal
Cataloging Standards
System Created
- 2018-11-06 11:40:43
System Modified
- 2021-08-11 04:09:57
- 3 years 3 months ago
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