TY - JOUR
T1 - Gesture For Generalization: Gesture Facilitates Flexible Learning of Words For Actions On Objects
AU - Wakefield-Connell, Elizabeth M.
AU - Hall, Casey
AU - James, Karin H.
AU - Goldin‐Meadow, Susan
N1 - Corresponding Author E-mail address: [email protected] Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA Correspondence Elizabeth Wakefield, Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA. Email: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Verb learning is difficult for children (Gentner, 1982), partially because children have a bias to associate a novel verb not only with the action it represents, but also with the object on which it is learned (Kersten & Smith, 2002). Here we investigate how well 4- and 5-year-old children (N = 48) generalize novel verbs for actions on objects after doing or seeing the action (e.g., twisting a knob on an object) or after doing or seeing a gesture for the action (e.g., twisting in the air near an object). We find not only that children generalize more effectively through gesture experience, but also that this ability to generalize persists after a 24-hour delay.
AB - Verb learning is difficult for children (Gentner, 1982), partially because children have a bias to associate a novel verb not only with the action it represents, but also with the object on which it is learned (Kersten & Smith, 2002). Here we investigate how well 4- and 5-year-old children (N = 48) generalize novel verbs for actions on objects after doing or seeing the action (e.g., twisting a knob on an object) or after doing or seeing a gesture for the action (e.g., twisting in the air near an object). We find not only that children generalize more effectively through gesture experience, but also that this ability to generalize persists after a 24-hour delay.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12656
U2 - 10.1111/desc.12656
DO - 10.1111/desc.12656
M3 - Article
JO - Developmental Science
JF - Developmental Science
ER -