The Interrelation Between Language Ability, Social Referencing Skills, and Infants' Goal Understanding at 9.5 Months of Age
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Authors
Brainerd, Rachel H.
Issue Date
2007
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
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Abstract
This study investigated the relationship between infants' social referencing, prior
language comprehension, and understanding an actor's goal-directed actions. Infants (M= 9.5 months of age. n = 64) took part in a habituation paradigm designed to assess
infants' ability to extend object goals across contextual changes. Infants were habituated
to an event in which an actor repeatedly selected one of two toys, and received test trials
in another room. On test trials the location of the toys were reversed and the actor
pursued another toy in the same relative location as her initial toy (new toy trials) in
alternation with test trials where the actor reached for the same target toy from
habituation, now in a new relative position (new path trials). Infants in the labels
condition (n = 32) heard the actor produce a language utterance during habituation trials
(e.g., "I like frogs") and infants in the no labels condition (n = 32) did not. Infants' social
referencing and other socio-cognitive skills produced across habituation trials were
coded. Infants' language comprehension was measured via parental report using the
MacArthur vocabulary checklist short form (Fenson et al., 2000). Significant positive
relationships existed between total language comprehension and social referencing
occurrences, and between social referencing and infants' preference for the new goal on
test trials, for infants in the labels condition. Specifically infants in the labels condition
who had a higher reported language comprehension used more social referencing looks
during the experiment and exhibited a greater preference for test events in which the actor
pursued a novel toy, suggesting that they expected the actor to maintain her same goal
across contexts. These findings suggest that a relationship between infants' use of socio-cognitive
skills and language lead to subsequent social cognition.
Description
vi, 69 p.
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