Baldwin D A
University of British Columbia.
J Child Lang. 1993 Jun;20(2):395-418. doi: 10.1017/s0305000900008345.
This research examines whether infants actively seek information from a speaker regarding the referent of the speaker's utterance. Forty-eight infants (in three age groups: 1;2-1;3, 1;4-1;5, and 1;6-1;7) heard novel labels for novel objects in two situations: follow-in labelling (the experimenter looked at and labelled the toy of the infant's focus) vs. discrepant labelling (the experimenter looked at and labelled a different toy than that of the infant's focus). Subsequently, half of the infants were asked comprehension questions (e.g. 'Where's the peri?'). The other half were asked preference questions (e.g. 'Where's the one you like?'), to ensure that their comprehension performance was not merely the result of preferential responding. The comprehension results revealed developmental change in both (a) infants' ability to establish new word-object mappings (infants aged 1;2-1;3 failed to establish stable word-object links even in follow-in labelling), and (b) infants' ability to pinpoint the correct referent during discrepant labelling (only infants aged 1;6-1;7 succeeded). Thus the period between 1;2 and 1;7 represents a time of change in infants' ability to establish new word-object mappings: infants are becoming increasingly adept at acquiring new labels under minimal learning conditions.
本研究考察了婴儿是否会主动从说话者那里寻求关于其话语所指对象的信息。四十八名婴儿（分为三个年龄组：1岁2个月至1岁3个月、1岁4个月至1岁5个月、1岁6个月至1岁7个月）在两种情境下听到了新物体的新标签：跟进式标注（实验者看着并标注婴儿所关注的玩具）与不一致标注（实验者看着并标注与婴儿所关注的玩具不同的另一个玩具）。随后，一半的婴儿被问到理解性问题（例如“peri在哪里？”）。另一半婴儿被问到偏好性问题（例如“你喜欢的那个在哪里？”），以确保他们的理解表现不仅仅是偏好性反应的结果。理解结果显示出两方面的发展变化：（a）婴儿建立新的词物映射的能力（1岁2个月至1岁3个月的婴儿即使在跟进式标注中也未能建立稳定的词物联系），以及（b）婴儿在不一致标注中确定正确所指对象的能力（只有1岁6个月至1岁7个月的婴儿成功了）。因此，1岁2个月至1岁7个月这段时间代表了婴儿建立新的词物映射能力的变化时期：婴儿在最少的学习条件下越来越擅长获取新标签。
