TY - JOUR
T1 - The what and the how
T2 - Information-seeking pointing gestures facilitate learning labels and functions
AU - Lucca, Kelsey
AU - Wilbourn, Makeba Parramore
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award ( NSF-BCS-13-52672 ) awarded to Makeba Parramore Wilbourn. The authors thank Camille Hayward for her help in data collection along with Natalie Quan, Catherine Yang, Karen Young, Primula Lane, and the research assistants of the Wilbourn Infant Lab at Duke (WILD) for their assistance in the recruitment, data collection, and coding. We also thank the WILD writing group members for their feedback on previous versions of the manuscript. Finally, we acknowledge the parents and children who participated in the study.
PY - 2019/2
Y1 - 2019/2
N2 - Infants’ pointing gestures are clear and salient markers of their interest. As a result, they afford infants with a targeted and precise way of eliciting information from others. The current study investigated whether, similar to older children's question asking, infants’ pointing gestures are produced to obtain information. Specifically, in a single experimental study, we examined whether 18-month-olds (N = 36) point to request specific types of information and how this translates into learning across domains. We elicited pointing from infants in a context that would naturally lend itself to information seeking (i.e., out-of-reach novel objects). In response to infants’ points, an experimenter provided a label, a function, or no information for each pointed-to object. We assessed infants’ persistence after receiving different types of information and their subsequent ability to form label–object or function–object associations. When infants pointed and received no information or functions, they persisted significantly more often than when they pointed and received labels, suggesting that they were most satisfied with receiving labels for objects compared with functions or no information. Infants successfully mapped both labels and functions onto objects. When infants expressed their interest in a novel object in a manner other than pointing, such as reaching, they (a) were equally satisfied with receiving object labels, functions, or no information and (b) did not successfully learn either labels or functions. Together, these findings demonstrate that infants’ pointing gestures are specific requests for labels that facilitate the acquisition of various types of information. In doing so, this work connects the research on information seeking during infancy to the established literature on question asking during childhood.
AB - Infants’ pointing gestures are clear and salient markers of their interest. As a result, they afford infants with a targeted and precise way of eliciting information from others. The current study investigated whether, similar to older children's question asking, infants’ pointing gestures are produced to obtain information. Specifically, in a single experimental study, we examined whether 18-month-olds (N = 36) point to request specific types of information and how this translates into learning across domains. We elicited pointing from infants in a context that would naturally lend itself to information seeking (i.e., out-of-reach novel objects). In response to infants’ points, an experimenter provided a label, a function, or no information for each pointed-to object. We assessed infants’ persistence after receiving different types of information and their subsequent ability to form label–object or function–object associations. When infants pointed and received no information or functions, they persisted significantly more often than when they pointed and received labels, suggesting that they were most satisfied with receiving labels for objects compared with functions or no information. Infants successfully mapped both labels and functions onto objects. When infants expressed their interest in a novel object in a manner other than pointing, such as reaching, they (a) were equally satisfied with receiving object labels, functions, or no information and (b) did not successfully learn either labels or functions. Together, these findings demonstrate that infants’ pointing gestures are specific requests for labels that facilitate the acquisition of various types of information. In doing so, this work connects the research on information seeking during infancy to the established literature on question asking during childhood.
KW - Cognitive development
KW - Fast mapping
KW - Information seeking
KW - Language acquisition
KW - Learning
KW - Pointing gestures
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 30318380
AN - SCOPUS:85054601490
SN - 0022-0965
VL - 178
SP - 417
EP - 436
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
ER -