Communicative cues in the absence of a human interaction partner enhance 12-month-old infants' word learning.

Is infants' word learning boosted by nonhuman social agents? An on-screen virtual agent taught infants word-object associations in a setup where the presence of contingent and referential cues could be manipulated using gaze contingency. In the study, 12-month-old Japanese-learning children (N = 36) looked significantly more to the correct object when it was labeled after exposure to a contingent and referential display versus a noncontingent and nonreferential display. These results show that communicative cues can augment learning even for a nonhuman agent, a finding highly relevant for our understanding of the mechanisms through which the social environment supports language acquisition and for research on the use of interactive screen media.

Duke Scholars

Author Reiko Mazuka Psychology & Neuroscience