Appreciating language conventions: thirteen-month-old Chinese infants understand that word generalization is shared practice

AbstractLanguage is conventional because word meanings are shared among different people. The present study examined Chinese infants’ understanding of the language convention that different people should generalize words in the same way. Thirteen-month-old Mandarin-speaking Chinese infants repeatedly viewed a speaker providing a novel label for a target object in the presence of a distractor object. Next, the objects changed colour and infants viewed the same speaker and a new speaker providing the label for either the different coloured target or distractor. They were also asked by both speakers to locate the correct referent of the label. Results revealed that infants expected both speakers to generalize the label to objects that belonged to the target category. This is the first evidence demonstrating that Chinese infants perceive word generalization as a form of shared convention.

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Object-based Selection of Irrelevant Features Is Not Confined to the Attended Object

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21558 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (9) ◽

pp. 2231-2239 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Carsten N. Boehler ◽

Mircea A. Schoenfeld ◽

Hans-Jochen Heinze ◽

Jens-Max Hopf

Keyword(s):

Visual Search ◽

Visual Field ◽

Target Object ◽

Neural Processing ◽

Irrelevant Feature ◽

Distractor Object ◽

Object Based ◽

Irrelevant Color ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

Selection Of

Attention to one feature of an object can bias the processing of unattended features of that object. Here we demonstrate with ERPs in visual search that this object-based bias for an irrelevant feature also appears in an unattended object when it shares that feature with the target object. Specifically, we show that the ERP response elicited by a distractor object in one visual field is modulated as a function of whether a task-irrelevant color of that distractor is also present in the target object that is presented in the opposite visual field. Importantly, we find this modulation to arise with a delay of approximately 80 msec relative to the N2pc—a component of the ERP response that reflects the focusing of attention onto the target. In a second experiment, we demonstrate that this modulation reflects enhanced neural processing in the unattended object. These observations together facilitate the surprising conclusion that the object-based selection of irrelevant features is spatially global even after attention has selected the target object.

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The Role of Components in Recognition across Changes of View

Perception ◽

10.1068/v96p0120 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 25 (1_suppl) ◽

pp. 96-96

Author(s):

J C Liter ◽

H H Bülthoff

Keyword(s):

Computational Models ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Vertical Axis ◽

Target Object ◽

General View ◽

Distractor Object ◽

Complex Features ◽

Rotated Objects ◽

Different Order

We examined the extent to which recognition of rotated objects is based on complex features, such as differently shaped components, when distractor objects may project images that are very similar to the studied images. The stimuli were unfamiliar computer-generated objects composed of four long thin components connected end to end. Each object was matched to a distractor object that had the same components arranged in a different order. The 3-D structure of the matched objects was otherwise the same—the lengths of the components in corresponding positions and the connection angles between them were identical. Subjects studied six target objects and then performed a 2AFC recognition task with each target and its matched distractor. Either the target, the distractor, or both were rotated ±40° about the vertical axis from the studied viewpoint. As expected, subjects chose the target object most often when it was not rotated (77.2% and 69.4% correct when the distractor was and was not rotated). However, subjects chose the target object 64.4% of the time when it was rotated and the distractor was not. In this case, the image of the distractor was more similar to the studied image than was the image of the target. Recognition of these objects was not based on pixel-based image similarity among studied and tested objects, but on a more general view-based similarity that takes into account a multitude of features, some more stable over changes of view than others. We discuss computational models that also rely on multiple view-based features.

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Handgrip Based Action Information Modulates Attentional Selection: An ERP Study

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.634359 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Sanjay Kumar ◽

M. Jane Riddoch ◽

Glyn W. Humphreys

Keyword(s):

Target Selection ◽

Target Object ◽

Attentional Selection ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Prior Work ◽

Object Matching ◽

Attentional Deployment ◽

Distractor Object

Prior work shows that the possibility of action to an object (visual affordance) facilitates attentional deployment. We sought to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying this modulation of attention by examining ERPs to target objects that were either congruently or incongruently gripped for their use in the presence of a congruently or incongruently gripped distractor. Participants responded to the presence or absence of a target object matching a preceding action word with a distractor object presented in the opposite location. Participants were faster in responding to congruently gripped targets compared to incongruently gripped targets. There was a reduced N2pc potential when the target was congruently gripped, and the distractor was incongruently gripped compared to the conditions where targets were incongruently gripped or when the distractor, as well as target, was congruently gripped. The N2pc results indicate that target selection is easier when action information is congruent with an object’s use.

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Effect of Perceptual Factors in the Relationship between a Referent and Objects around the Referent on Young Children’s Interpretation of Word Meanings

International Journal of Social Science Studies ◽

10.11114/ijsss.v8i6.4812 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (6) ◽

pp. 15

Author(s):

Takahiro Tamura

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Development Process ◽

Target Item ◽

Target Object ◽

The Other ◽

Word Meanings ◽

Other Hand ◽

The Relationship ◽

Perceptual Factors ◽

Do So

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of perceptual factors in the relationship between a referent and objects around the referent on young children’s interpretation of word meanings. Participants were 60 children aged 5 years (35 girls, 25 boys; mean age: 5 years 7 months). They participated in a task of interpreting the meaning of nonsense words with high and low inclusiveness conditions. Participants were likely to perceive that objects around the target object included the target object in the high inclusiveness condition. On the other hand, they were not likely to do so in the low inclusiveness condition. As a result, in the high inclusiveness condition, they were likely to speculate that the nonsense label was the name for the target taken together with the object around the target, while in the low inclusiveness condition, they understood it as the name of the target item. The results showed that detailed perceptual factors, such as inclusiveness of the referent and objects around the referent, affected children’s language development process.

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