The Role of Environmental Context in Early Semantic Network Development

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Relationships between words organize children’s early vocabularies into interconnected semantic networks. The
structure of these semantic networks, specifically how densely connected they are, predict cognitive skills that
are central to later academic success, including vocabulary size and word recognition speed. That is, children
whose vocabularies include more words that are semantically related to one another have stronger language
skills later in life. Thus, to support successful language development outcomes, it is essential to understand (a)
how toddlers begin to form semantic associations between individual words and (b) how they use these
associations to organize their networks into interconnected clusters of related words. Previous work has explored
the possibility that toddlers form semantic associations based on perceptual similarities between the objects that
words refer to, as well as similarities in the linguistic structures in which words are used. However, these cues
may not always be available and accessible to young word learners. An additional, unexplored possibility is that
toddlers take advantage of a different type of cue—the environmental context in which they encounter words
and objects, like the kitchen or the bathroom—to form semantic associations between words for objects that
appear in the same contexts and to group objects that appear in the same context into semantic categories.
Previous research suggests that caregivers systematically talk about semantically-related words in particular
contexts (i.e., food-related words in the kitchen and hygiene-related words in the bathroom) and that toddlers
remember the contexts in which they encounter words and objects. Despite the reliability and accessibility of
environmental context as a cue to lexical associations, its role in semantic network development has not yet
been examined. Specific Aim 1 of the proposed project will investigate whether young toddlers form semantic
associations between novel words for objects that are encountered in the same environmental context. Specific
Aim 2 will examine whether older toddlers can use environmental context to aggregate perceptually dissimilar
objects together into broad categories of semantically-related objects. Finally, Specific Aim 3 will examine how
individual differences in toddlers’ associations between words and particular environmental contexts are related
to differences in the structure of their extant vocabularies. By examining the role of environmental context in
semantic network development, the proposed project will incorporate environmental context into word learning
theory. Additionally, the proposed work will examine a mechanistic account of semantic network development
across toddlerhood, which will inform theories that encompass individual differences in vocabulary acquisition
and could serve as a potential target for future language learning interventions. Training Plan. The training plan
focuses on acquiring new methodological expertise in diverse experimental paradigms and individual differences
measures, gaining theoretical knowledge in semantic development, mentoring junior researchers, completing
advanced training in ethical and responsible conduct of research, and honing science communication skills.

Grant Number: 5F31HD115328-02
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: ELISE BREITFELD