A5015161572- Child and Animal Learning Development
- Language Development and Disorders
- Reading and Literacy Development
- Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
- Speech and dialogue systems
- Language and cultural evolution
- Categorization, perception, and language
- Natural Language Processing Techniques
- Early Childhood Education and Development
- Child Development and Digital Technology
- Educational Strategies and Epistemologies
- linguistics and terminology studies
- Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Multisensory perception and integration
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Representations and Identity
- Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Complex Systems and Decision Making
- Text Readability and Simplification
- Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
Princeton University
2019-2025
University of Wisconsin–Madison
2014-2024
University of Pennsylvania
2024
University of California, San Diego
2024
Heidelberg University
2014
The field of infancy research faces a difficult challenge: some questions require samples that are simply too large for any one lab to recruit and test. ManyBabies aims address this problem by forming large-scale collaborations on key theoretical in developmental science, while promoting the uptake Open Science practices. Here, we look back first project completed under umbrella - 1 which tested development infant-directed speech preference. Our goal is share lessons learned over course...
Much of our basic understanding cognitive and social processes in infancy relies on measures looking time, specifically infants’ visual preference for a novel or familiar stimulus. However, despite being the foundation many behavioral tasks infant research, determinants preferences are poorly understood, differences expression can be difficult to interpret. In this large-scale study, we test predictions from Hunter Ames model infants' preferences. We investigate effects three factors...
Abstract A pervasive goal in the study of how children learn word meanings is to explain young solve mapping problem. The problem asks language learners connect a label its referent. Mapping one part learning, however, it does not reflect other critical components meaning construction, such as encoding lexico‐semantic relations and socio‐pragmatic context. In this paper, we argue that learning researchers' overemphasis has constrained our experimental paradigms hypotheses, leading...
collaboration on comparative cognition and behavior across animal taxa (https://manymanys.github.
Abstract There is substantial evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech (IDS) to adult-directed (ADS). The strongest for this claim has come from two large-scale investigations: i) a community-augmented meta-analysis of published behavioral studies and ii) multi-lab replication study. In paper, we aim improve our understanding the IDS preference its boundary conditions by combining comparing these data sources across key population design characteristics underlying studies. Our...
Why are humans born “helpless”? Cusack et al. propose an explanation for infants’ limited behavioral repertoires compared to other animals. The authors that helplessness has learning benefits analogous training foundation models in machine learning. We share al.’s enthusiasm using computational tools theorize about cognitive development. However, we predict approaches do not reckon with the characteristic features of infant development reviewed here – is active from beginning, shaped by...
Why are humans born “helpless”? Cusack et al. propose an explanation for infants’ limited behavioral repertoires compared to other animals, hypothesizing that helplessness has learning benefits analogous training foundation models in machine learning. We share al.’s enthusiasm using computational tools theorize about cognitive development. However, we predict approaches do not reckon with the characteristic features of infant development reviewed here – is active from beginning, shaped by...
Children are active, curious learners. How might children’s curiosity shape their curriculum during word learning? Past research suggests that tendency to explore can lead them discover novel information learning. This exploratory could be especially useful when learning meanings: exploring potential meanings for words broadly help children efficiently probe a word’s possible extension. To investigate this question, we tested how (5-8 years of age) and adults sample presented with tasked...
Abstract We investigate the roles of linguistic and sensory experience in early-produced visual, auditory, abstract words congenitally-blind toddlers, deaf typically-sighted/hearing peers. also assess role language access by comparing early word production children learning English or American Sign Language (ASL) from birth, versus at a delay. Using parental report data on child MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, we found evidence that while produced referring to...
How do learners gather new information during word learning? One possibility is that selectively sample items help them reduce uncertainty about meanings. In a series of cross-situational learning tasks with adults and children, we manipulated the referential ambiguity label-object pairs experienced training subsequently investigated which words participants chose to additional about. first experiment, adult receive on object-label associations learning. This ambiguity-reduction strategy was...
Dominant theories of language production suggest that word choice—lexical selection—is driven by alignment with the intended message: To talk about a young feline, we choose most aligned word, kitten. Another factor could shape lexical selection is accessibility, or how easy it to produce given (e.g., cat more accessible than kitten). test whether producers are also influenced designed an artificial lexicon containing high- and low-frequency words whose meanings correspond compass...
Test-retest reliability-establishing that measurements remain consistent across multiple testing sessions-is critical to measuring, understanding, and predicting individual differences in infant language development. However, previous attempts establish measurement reliability speech perception tasks are limited, of frequently used measures is largely unknown. The current study investigated the test-retest infants' preference for infant-directed over adult-directed a large sample (N = 158)...
Abstract The present study examined how children spontaneously represent facial cues associated with emotion. 106 three‐ to six‐year‐old (48 male, 58 female; 9.4% Asian, 84.0% White, 6.6% more than one race) and 40 adults (10 30 10% Hispanic, 30% 2.5% Black, 57.5% White) were recruited from a Midwestern city (2019–2020), sorted emotion in spatial arrangement method that assesses knowledge without reliance on vocabulary. Using supervised unsupervised analyses, the found evidence for...
Abstract Interpreting and predicting direction of preference in infant research has been a thorny issue for decades. Several factors have proposed to account familiarity versus novelty preferences, including age, length exposure, task complexity. The current study explores an additional dimension: experience with the experimental paradigm. We reanalyzed data from 4 experiments on artificial grammar learning 12‐month‐old infants run using head‐turn procedure (HPP). Participants these studies...
Big Team Science (BTS) has the potential to reshape comparative cognition research, but its implementation—especially making comparisons species-fair, handling multi-site variation, and reaching researcher consensus—poses daunting challenges. Here, we propose solutions discuss how BTS can transform field.
Distributional semantics as a source of visual knowledge: Commentary on Kim, Elli, and Bedny (2019), PNAS [Supplementary Materials: http://rpubs.com/mll/504479]
The field of infancy research faces a difficult challenge: some questions require samples that are simply too large for any one lab to recruit and test. ManyBabies aims address this problem by forming large-scale collaborations on key theoretical in developmental science, while promoting the uptake Open Science practices. Here, we look back first project completed under umbrella – 1 which tested development infant-directed speech preference. Our goal is share lessons learned over course...