Semantic Structure in Vocabulary Knowledge Interacts With Lexical and Sentence Processing in Infancy

• Autores: Arielle Borovsky, Erica M. Ellis, Julia L. Evans, Jeffrey L. Elman
• Localización: Child development, ISSN 0009-3920, Vol. 87, Nº. 6, 2016, págs. 1893-1908
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Although the size of a child's vocabulary associates with language-processing skills, little is understood regarding how this relation emerges. This investigation asks whether and how the structure of vocabulary knowledge affects language processing in English-learning 24-month-old children (N = 32; 18 F, 14 M). Parental vocabulary report was used to calculate semantic density in several early-acquired semantic categories. Performance on two language-processing tasks (lexical recognition and sentence processing) was compared as a function of semantic density. In both tasks, real-time comprehension was facilitated for higher density items, whereas lower density items experienced more interference. The findings indicate that language-processing skills develop heterogeneously and are influenced by the semantic network surrounding a known word.