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Article published In:
Language, Interaction and Acquisition
Vol. 14:2 (2023) ► pp.167–190

Joint actions affect infants’ cognitive word–object processing

ORCID logo | Paderborn University
This study focuses on how salient, social, and interactional cues (solo vs. joint exploration) help 10-month-old infants (n = 66) to solve referential ambiguity, and examines the retention of word–object mappings. Results show that infants attend to salient objects when no other resources of information are available. When salient and social cues conflict, infants follow social information for referent selection. By comparing solo and joint object exploration, this study provides first evidence that joint actions modify the duration of infants’ attention to objects not only during object play but also in a retention test. During object play, joint actions with a social partner sustain infants’ attention to a referent. In the retention trials, joint actions affect infants’ attention patterns by reducing their initial saliency bias. This, in turn, indicates a change in cognitive processing of the word–object link.
Keywords: attention, word learning, saliency, social cues, interaction
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Cueing attention for word–object mappings
    • 1.2The present study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Stimuli
    • 2.3Procedure and design
      • 2.3.1Exploration phase
      • 2.3.2Saliency phase
      • 2.3.3Training: Labeling and playing phase
      • 2.3.4Coding of infants’ gaze
      • 2.3.5Test phase
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Saliency phase
    • 3.2Labeling phase
    • 3.3Playing phase
    • 3.4Test phase
      • 3.4.1Onset part
      • 3.4.2Offset part
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1The role of salient, social, and interactional cues in infants’ referent selection
    • 4.2The role of solo and joint exploration in infants’ retention
    • 4.3Limitations and future directions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 22 March 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.21024.wil
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