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Development of bidirectional phono-semantic activation in toddlers
Armando Angulo-Chavira1,2, Natalia Arias-Trejo2
11 Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, México.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|August 18, 2018
Summary
Toddlers aged 24 and 30 months show developing bidirectional language processing. By 30 months, toddlers demonstrate both forward and backward activation between word sounds and meanings, crucial for language acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Mediated priming effects reveal how word processing occurs, with activation spreading from a prime to a target via a mediator.
- Previous research identified forward (phonological to semantic) mediated priming at 24 months.
- Interactive models suggest activation propagates bidirectionally between phonological and semantic processing levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of bidirectional phonological and semantic processing in Spanish-speaking toddlers.
- To examine how toddlers aged 24 and 30 months utilize both forward and backward activation pathways in language processing.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a primed preferential looking task with Spanish-speaking toddlers.
- Participants viewed an unlabeled prime image followed by two test images (target and distractor).
- Tested semantic-phonological and phonological-semantic priming relationships to assess activation patterns.
Main Results:
- Both 24- and 30-month-olds showed semantic-phonological priming effects.
- Thirty-month-olds, unlike 24-month-olds, did not show a preference for an unrelated target when a related one was named, suggesting developing inhibitory control.
- Both age groups demonstrated phonological-semantic priming, indicating bidirectional activation.
Conclusions:
- Results indicate that bidirectional interactions between semantic and phonological processing levels develop between 24 and 30 months of age.
- The findings highlight developmental differences in the efficiency and nature of forward versus backward activation in early language processing.
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