University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada.
Harvard University, USA.
J Child Lang. 2022 Mar;49(2):302-325. doi: 10.1017/S0305000921000106. Epub 2021 Mar 16.
The looking-while-listening (LWL) paradigm is frequently used to measure toddlers' lexical processing efficiency (LPE). Children's LPE is associated with vocabulary size, yet other linguistic, cognitive, or social skills contributing to LPE are not well understood. It also remains unclear whether LPE measures from two types of LWL trials (target-initial versus distractor-initial trials) are differentially associated with the abovementioned potential correlates of LPE. We tested 18- to 24-month-olds and found that children's word learning on a fast-mapping task was associated with LPE measures from all trials and distractor-initial trials but not target-initial trials. Children's vocabulary and pragmatic skills were both associated with their fast-mapping performance. Executive functions and pragmatic skills were associated with LPE measures from distractor-initial but not target-initial trials. Hence, LPE as measured by the LWL paradigm may reflect a constellation of skills important to language development. Methodological implications for future studies using the LWL paradigm are discussed.
听看同时（LWL）范式常用于测量幼儿的词汇处理效率（LPE）。儿童的 LPE 与词汇量有关，但对于有助于 LPE 的其他语言、认知或社交技能，我们还不太了解。此外，尚不清楚两种 LWL 试验（目标起始与干扰起始试验）的 LPE 测量值是否与 LPE 的上述潜在相关因素存在差异。我们测试了 18 至 24 个月大的儿童，发现儿童在快速映射任务中的单词学习与所有试验和干扰起始试验的 LPE 测量值相关，但与目标起始试验无关。儿童的词汇量和语用技能都与他们的快速映射表现相关。执行功能和语用技能与干扰起始试验的 LPE 测量值相关，而与目标起始试验无关。因此，LWL 范式测量的 LPE 可能反映了对语言发展很重要的一系列技能。文中还讨论了未来使用 LWL 范式进行研究的方法学意义。
