Self-generating Learning Process in Lexical Development

2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18300089
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: IMAI Mutsumi Keio University, 環境情報学部, 教授 (60255601)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HARYU Etsuko 東京大学, 教育学研究科, 准教授 (70276004) ; OKADA Hiroyuki 玉川大学, 工学部, 教授 (10349326) ; KAJIKAWA Sachuyo 玉川大学, 学術研究所, 講師 (70384724)
• Project Period (FY): 2006 – 2009
• Keywords: 認知心理学 / 言語発達

Research Abstract

Lexical learning takes place in two phases. First, children fast map a rough meaning to a newly introduced word. They then adjust and refine the meaning as they add new words in the semantic field. We found that (1) inference of word meaning by fast-mapping is more difficult for verbs than for nouns independent of the ambient language ; (2) linguistic properties of the ambient language affects the cues children rely on in inferring verb meanings ; (3) verb meaning obtained by fast-mapping is incomplete, and children have to go through gradual and continuous restructuring of verb meanings.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] A developmental shift from similar to language specific strategies in verb acquisition: A comparison of English, Spanish, and Japanese. (2010)
  • Author(s): Maguire, M. Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R., Imai, M., Haryu, E., Vanegas, S. Okada, H., Pulverman, R., Sanchez-Davis, B.
  • Journal Title: Cognition 114 Pages: 299-319
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Children learn sound symbolic words better: Evolutionary vestige of sound symbolic protolanguage. The evolution of language: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference (EVOLANG8) (2010)
  • Author(s): Kita, S., Kantartzis, K., Imai, M., M. Schouwstra, B. de Boer, K. Smith
  • Journal Title: World Scientific Pages: 206-213
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Sound symbolism facilitates early verb learning. (2008)
  • Author(s): Imai, M. Kita, S., Nagumo, M., Okada, H.
  • Journal Title: Cognition 109 Pages: 54-65
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Children's use of argument structure, meta-knowledge of the lexicon, and extra-linguistic contextual cues in inferring meanings of novel verbs. (2008)
  • Author(s): Imai, M
  • Journal Title: Palo Alto, USA: CSLI publications (The Proceedings of HPSG08 conference) Pages: 417-435
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Fast-mapping and reorganization: Development of verb meanings as a system. In the Proceedings of the 30th Annual Cognitive Science Society Meeting (2008)
  • Author(s): Saji, N., Saalbach, H., Imai, M., Zhang, Y., Shu, H., Okada, H.
  • Journal Title: Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Pages: 35-40
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Novel noun and verb learning in Chinese-, English-, and Japanese-speaking children. (2008)
  • Author(s): Imai, M., Li, L., Haryu, E., Okada, H., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R., Shigematsu, J
  • Journal Title: Child Development 79 Pages: 979-1000
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Talking about Walking: Biomechanics and the Language of Locomotion. (2008)
  • Author(s): Malt, B., Gennari, S., Imai, M., Ameel, E., Tsuda, N., Majid, A.
  • Journal Title: Psychological Science 19 Pages: 232-240
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] The scope of linguistic influence: Does a classifier system alter object concepts? (2007)
  • Author(s): Saalbach, H., Imai, M.
  • Journal Title: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 136 Pages: 485-501
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Revisiting language universals and linguistic relativity: language-relative construal of individuation constrained by universal ontology. (2007)
  • Author(s): Imai, M., Mazuka, R.
  • Journal Title: Cognitive Science 31 Pages: 385-414
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] L2習得における類義語の使い分けの学習:複数のことばの意味関係理解の定量的可視化の試み
  • Author(s): 佐治伸郎・梶田祐次・今井むつみ
  • Journal Title: Second Language (印刷中)
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Object Similarity Bootstraps Young Children to Action-Based Verb Extensions.
  • Author(s): Haryu, E., Imai, M., Okada, H
  • Journal Title: Child Development (in pres)
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] he‘where' of events: How do English- and Japanese-reared infants discriminate grounds in dynamic events? (2009)
  • Author(s): Goksun, T., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Imai, M., Konishi, H., Golinkoff, R.
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the 34th Boston University Conference on Language Development
  • Place of Presentation: Boston University, Massachusetts, USA
  • Year and Date: 20091106-20091108
• [Presentation] 言語獲得における意味の再編成過程に言語が与える影響に関する研究. (2009)
  • Author(s): 佐治伸郎・今井むつみ
  • Organizer: 認知科学会第26回大会
  • Place of Presentation: 慶應大学藤沢キャンパス
  • Year and Date: 2009-09-13
• [Presentation] Sound symbolism fosters early verb leaning in Japanese- and English-speaking children. (2009)
  • Author(s): Imai, M., Kita, S., Kantartzis, K
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development
  • Place of Presentation: Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Year and Date: 2009-04-04
• [Presentation] Word learning does not end at fast-mapping: Delineating verb meanings among neighboring words in a complex semantic domain. (2009)
  • Author(s): Imai, M., Saji, N., Saalbach, H
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development
  • Place of Presentation: Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Year and Date: 2009-04-04
• [Presentation] From object-based category to manner-based category: Developmental trajectory of children's verb learning. (2009)
  • Author(s): Saji, N., Imai, M., Saalbach, H., Zhang, Y., Shu, H., Okada, H.
  • Organizer: Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development
  • Place of Presentation: Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Year and Date: 2009-04-04
• [Presentation] Categorization, Label Extension, and Inductive Reasoning in Chinese and German Preschoolers: Influence of a Classifier System and Universal Cognitive Constraints. (2008)
  • Author(s): Saalbach, H., Imai, M
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
  • Place of Presentation: Vancouver, Canada
  • Year and Date: 2008-07-28
• [Presentation] Fast-mapping and reorganization: Development of verb meanings as a system. (2008)
  • Author(s): Saji, N., Saalbach, H., Imai, M., Zhang, Y., Shu, H., Okada, H.
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the 30th Annual Cognitive Science Society Meeting
  • Place of Presentation: Washington DC, USA
  • Year and Date: 2008-07-24
• [Presentation] 文脈によって変わる表情の読み取り. (2008)
  • Author(s): 岡田浩之・高橋英之・大森隆司
  • Organizer: 日本赤ちゃん学会第8回学術集会論文集
  • Place of Presentation: 千里ライフサイエンスセンター
  • Year and Date: 2008-04-08
• [Presentation] Learning verbs as a system: How Child children learn relations among carry/hold verbs. (2007)
  • Author(s): Saji, N., Saalbach, H., Imai, M., Zhang, Y., Shu, H., Okada, H
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the 12th International Conference on the Processing of East Asia Related Languages (PEARL). National Cheng Kung University
  • Place of Presentation: Tainan, Taiwan
  • Year and Date: 2007-12-28
• [Presentation] Case-marking and argument-number dilemma in children learning an argument dropping language in inferring novel verb meanings. (2007)
  • Author(s): Imai, M., Haryu, E., Okada, H., Kajikawa, S., Saalbach, H
  • Organizer: Poster presented at Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development
  • Place of Presentation: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  • Year and Date: 2007-04-01
• [Book] Categories in mind and categories in language: Are classifier categories reflection of the mind? Words and the mind: How words capture human experience (2010)
  • Author(s): Imai, M., Saalbach, H, B. Malt, P. Wolff
  • Total Pages: 138-164
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
• [Book] レキシコンの構築:子どもはどのように語と概念を学んでいくのか (2007)
  • Author(s): 今井むつみ・針生悦子
  • Total Pages: 264
  • Publisher: 岩波書店
• [Book] echanism of lexical development: Implications from Japanese children's word learning., Handbook of Japanese Psycholinguistics (2006)
  • Author(s): Imai, M, M. Nakayama, R. Mazuka, Y. Shirai
  • Total Pages: 48-55
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• [Book] Revisiting the noun-verb debate: a crosslinguistic comparison of novel noun and verb learning in English-, Japanese-and Chinese-speaking children. Action meets word: How children learn verbs (2006)
  • Author(s): Imai, M., Haryu, E., Okada, H., Li, L., Shigematsu, J, K. Hirsh-Pasek, R. Golinkoff
  • Total Pages: 450-476
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
• [Book] ことばの意味を「習得」するとは何を意味するのか:認知心理学からの言語発達理論への貢献. 言語の可能性9:言語と哲学・心理学
  • Author(s): 今井むつみ・佐治伸郎, 遊佐典昭(編)
  • Publisher: 朝倉書店(印刷中)
• [Book] 外国語学習研究への認知心理学の貢献:語意と語彙の学習の本質とは何か. 現代の認知心理学5:発達と教育
  • Author(s): 今井むつみ・佐治伸郎, 市川伸一(編)
  • Publisher: 北大路書房(印刷中)
• [Remarks] ホームページ
  • URL: http://cogpsy.sfc.keio.ac.jp/imai/