Examining the Influence of Sensorimotor Experience on 5-year-old Children's Word Learning

According to strong theories of embodied cognition, sensorimotor experience is essential for gaining, representing, and accessing conceptual knowledge. The role of embodied knowledge in adult language processing has been studied quite extensively, and embodied experiences are considered necessary for infants’ early learning. The effect of sensorimotor experience in older children’s language learning, however, has been examined to a much lesser extent. I conducted two experiments with 5-year-old children to examine the influence of sensorimotor interaction on object label learning. In Experiment 1, children learned labels for ten novel objects in one of four learning conditions: active interaction, observe interaction, object observation, or object observation with fact. The children were then given a recognition test, and the results indicated that there was no effect of learning condition on recognition accuracy. Children in the active interaction condition did make more comments during the learning phase about how the objects could be manipulated, and this focus on object function could have distracted from their ability to learn the object labels. In Experiment 2, I modified the stimuli so that they did not afford any obvious functions and so that the sensory features of the objects were emphasized. Children again learned labels for ten novel objects in one of two learning conditions: active interaction or object observation. Once again, there was no effect of learning condition on recognition accuracy performance. Taken together, the findings provide some insight into the role of embodied experience in children’s language learning. More specifically, the results provide evidence against strong theories of embodied cognition by demonstrating a situation in which sensorimotor experience did not benefit learning.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Wellsby, Michele

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Pexman, Penny

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Graham, Susan
• Sears, Chris
• Drefs, Michelle
• James, Karin

• Psychology--Developmental

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/26029

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:11023/2923