Duke University.
Child Dev. 2018 May;89(3):941-960. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12707. Epub 2016 Dec 29.
Infants' pointing gestures are a critical predictor of early vocabulary size. However, it remains unknown precisely how pointing relates to word learning. The current study addressed this question in a sample of 108 infants, testing one mechanism by which infants' pointing may influence their learning. In Study 1, 18-month-olds, but not 12-month-olds, more readily mapped labels to objects if they had first pointed toward those objects than if they had referenced those objects via other communicative behaviors, such as reaching or gaze alternations. In Study 2, when an experimenter labeled a not pointed-to-object, 18-month-olds' pointing was no longer related to enhanced fast mapping. These findings suggest that infants' pointing gestures reflect a readiness and, potentially, a desire to learn.
婴儿的指向手势是早期词汇量的重要预测指标。然而，指向手势与单词学习的确切关系尚不清楚。本研究在 108 名婴儿样本中探讨了这个问题，测试了婴儿指向手势影响其学习的一种机制。在研究 1 中，18 个月大的婴儿而不是 12 个月大的婴儿，如果他们先指向那些物体，而不是通过其他交流行为（如伸手或目光交替）来指向那些物体，那么他们更愿意将标签映射到物体上。在研究 2 中，当实验者给一个未被指向的物体贴上标签时，18 个月大的婴儿的指向与快速映射的增强不再相关。这些发现表明，婴儿的指向手势反映了一种学习的准备状态，可能还有学习的愿望。
