Research in object recognition has tried to distinguish holistic from by parts. One can also guess an its context. Words are objects, and how we recognize them is the core question of reading research. Do fast readers rely most on letter-by-letter decoding (i.e., parts), whole word shape, or sentence context? We manipulated text selectively knock out each source information while sparing others. Surprisingly, effects knockouts rate reveal a triple dissociation. Each process always...

Abstract When reasoning about time, English‐speaking adults often invoke a “mental timeline” stretching from left to right. Although the direction of timeline varies across cultures, tendency represent time as line has been argued be ubiquitous and primitive. On this hypothesis, we might predict that children also spontaneously spatial when time. However, little is known how mental develops, or what extent it variable malleable in childhood. Here, used sticker placement task test whether...

Abstract English‐speaking adults often recruit a “mental timeline” to represent events from left‐to‐right (LR), but its developmental origins are debated. Here, we test whether preschoolers prefer ordered linear representations of and they culturally conventional directions. ( n = 85) 3‐ 5‐year‐olds 513; 50% female; ~47% white, ~35% Latinx, ~18% other; tested 2016–2018) were told three‐step stories asked choose which two image sequences best illustrated them. We found that 4‐year‐olds chose...

Why are spatial metaphors, like the use of “high” to describe a musical pitch, so common? This study tested one hundred and fifty‐four 3‐ 5‐year‐old English‐learning children on their ability learn novel adjective in domain space or pitch extend this untrained dimension. Children were more proficient at learning word when it described attribute compared pitch. However, once learned word, they extended dimension without feedback. Thus, leveraged preexisting associations between spontaneously...

Labeling social groups can increase essentialism (e.g., beliefs that group members are fundamentally the same), leading to greater discrimination and stigmatization. Labels also stigma about mental illness (MI). Some health professionals claim using "person-first" language reduce stigma, but there is little empirical support for this, no studies have investigated relation between person-first essentialism. Here, 513 adults read vignettes describing characters with MI, "a person autism"),...

Children use time words like minute and hour early in development, but takeyears to acquire their precise meanings. Here we investigate whetherchildren assign meaning these usages, if so, how. To do this,we test interpretation of seven words: second, minute, hour,day, week, month, year. We find that preschoolers infer the orderingsof (e.g., > minute), have little no knowledge theabsolute durations they encode. Knowledge absolute duration is learnedmuch later development – many years after...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced children to reckon with the causal relations underlying disease transmission. What are children's theories of how is transmitted? And do they understand relation between susceptibility and need for disease-mitigating behavior? We asked these questions in context beliefs about supernatural beings, like Santa Tooth Fairy. Because beings cannot be observed, impact on them must based their transmission prevention rather than experience. In summer 2020, N = 218...

Unlike English, German contains single words for “the day after tomorrow” (übermorgen) and before yesterday” (vorgestern). How might these cross-linguistic differences influence children’s acquisition of time words? Prior work shows that English-speaking preschoolers learn the deictic status (e.g., yesterday was in past) long learning their precise temporal locations exactly one ago). Here we ask whether set influences understanding proximal (yesterday/tomorrow) distal (day yesterday/day...

Abstract Children learn their first number words gradually over the course of many months, which is surprising given ability to discriminate small numerosities. One potential explanation for this that children are sensitive numerical features stimuli, but don’t consider exact cardinality as a primary hypothesis novel word meanings. To test this, we trained 144 on they hadn’t yet learned, and contrasted with condition in were merely required attend identify word’s referent, without encoding...

The old discovery that readers make several fixations per second, rather than a continuous sweep across the text, suggests reading might be limited by number of letters can acquired in one fixation. That span has been measured various ways, but remains unexplained. Here we prove “visual span” is simply characters are not crowded. We measure RSVP rates for both original and scrambled word order, as function size spacing at central peripheral locations. As text increases, rate rises abruptly...

Abstract This study explored children's causal reasoning about the past and future. U.S. adults ( n = 60) 3‐to‐6‐year‐olds 228) from an urban, middle‐class population (49% female; ~45% white) participated between 2017 2019. Participants were told three‐step stories asked effects of a change to second event. Given direct interventions on event, children all ages judged that event still occurred, suggesting even preschoolers understand time is irreversible. However, reasoned differently when...

Meshing ideas from the reading literature with our work on crowding, we present a three-process model of to account for rate in word/min. We use crowding distinguish holistic vs by-parts recognition. In there is critical spacing beyond which neighbors no longer interfere. If object recognized holistically, then it can be identified even when whole lies within spacing, without isolating any part (Martelli, Majaj, and Pelli, 2004, Journal Vision, press). recognition by parts identification...

We read more slowly in the periphery, even though speed of information processing is faster there (Carrasco et al., 2003, Nature Neuroscience). At an eccentricity 15 degrees, we by a factor 3.5. get slower as increases, when stimuli are presented at optimal print size and spacing each eccentricity. Why peripheral reading slower? In this study, minimize need for eye movements using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP). measure “reading” rates various complexities — words (in context), 26...

A fiber laser at 1532 nm is stabilized to a sub-Doppler feature in acetylene inside hollow core kagome structured photonic crystal fiber. Short term stability evaluated by beating against Cr:forsterite laser-based frequency comb.

Deictic time words like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” pose a challenge to children not only because they are abstract, label periods in time, but also their denotations vary according the at which uttered: Monday’s is different than Thursday’s. Although produce these as early age 2 or 3, do use them adult-like ways for several subsequent years. Here, we explored whether have partial systematic meanings during long delay before usage. We asked 3- 8-year-olds represent on bidirectional, left...