The Signal in the Noise: The Visual Ecology of Parents' Object Naming

Overview

Journal Infancy

Specialties Gynecology & Obstetrics
Pediatrics

Date 2019 Sep 26

PMID 31551663

Citations 11

Authors

Sumarga H Suanda

Meagan Barnhart

Linda B Smith

Chen Yu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The uncertainty of reference has long been considered a key challenge for young word learners. Recent studies of head-camera wearing toddlers and their parents during object play have revealed that from toddlers' views the referents of parents' object naming are often visually quite clear. Although these studies have promising theoretical implications, they were all conducted in stripped-down laboratory contexts. The current study examines the visual referential clarity of parents' object naming during play in the home. Results revealed patterns of visual referential clarity that resembled previous laboratory studies. Furthermore, context analyses show that such clarity is largely a product of manual activity rather than the object-naming context. Implications for the mechanisms of early word learning are discussed.

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