What is it about?
Learning part names, such as hands of a clock, can be a challenge for children because children will assume a given name as the object name (e.g., a clock). In this study, we have shown ostensive gaze shifting (i.e., gaze from the child’s face to the object) is essential to learn part names.
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Why is it important?
Previously eye contact (i.e., no-shifting in this study) has been considered to promote language acquisition. However, particularly in learning part names, four-and-a-half-year-olds and adults interpreted the given name as a part name only when gaze shifting occurred, but two-and-a-half-year-olds did not. In four-and-a-half-year-olds, their use of social-pragmatic information is more advanced. Ostensive gaze can be effective if children noticed the combination of gaze direction and ostensive signals.
Perspectives
In some situations, eye contact is generally a powerful tool to convey one’s intention. In a situation of language acquisition, however, eye contact only may not be effective. Because a real world is filled with various things, referential intentions need to be specified. I hope our finding may help, for education, to enhance specifying referential intensions.
Tetsuya Yasuda
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ostensive gaze shifting changes referential intention in word meanings: An examination of children’s learning of part names., Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition, February 2022, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000859.
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