2000 — 2002 |
Booth, Amy E |
F32Activity Code Description: To provide postdoctoral research training to individuals to broaden their scientific background and extend their potential for research in specified health-related areas. |
Object Functions and Names in Infant Categorization @ Northwestern University
Categorical representations are critically important for human action and cognition. Although infants have the highly adaptive ability to form categories (e.g. Quinn & Eimas, 1997; Mandler & McDonough, 1993), it is not yet clear how they succeed at doing so. Several researchers have proposed that there must be constraints on the kinds of information that infants attend to in developing categorical representations. Two particularly promising classes of constraints have been identified: object functions and object names. Recent theory and research suggest that object functions and names highlight commonalities among sets of objects so that infants respond to them categorically (Booth, 1998; Waxman & Markow, 1995). Unfortunately, research on object functions and naming has been conducted using very different methodology and stimuli. Thus, it is difficult to know whether the two constraints are equally effective under a variety of matched conditions. This proposal has two goals, the first of which is to evaluate whether the object function and name constraints operate effectively on the same stimuli, using the same method, in infants of the same age under a variety of conditions. The second goal is to explore interactions between the effects of object functions and names. These goals are pursued using an active familiarization and match to sample task. 14-month-old infants manipulate a series of objects from a single category that are presented with no identifying cues, novel names, novel functions or both. They are then asked to choose between a novel member of the familiarization category and an exemplar of a contrasting category to make a match to a familiar target object. If object functions and names do highlight categories, infants should choose the taxonomic matches more often when these cues are presented during familiarization than when they are not.
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0.958 |
2005 — 2006 |
Booth, Amy E |
R03Activity Code Description: To provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Small grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary short-term projects and are non-renewable. |
Assessing the Impact of Function On Early Categorization @ Northwestern University
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infants demonstrate an impressive capacity for forming categories despite the vast quantities of information they must process in doing so. The principle focus of this proposal is on attention to object function as one potential constraint supporting this fundamental cognitive capacity. Existing evidence highlights the importance of object function as an indicator of category foundaries for both adults and children. Our own research goes further, suggesting that object functions make a greater contribution by facilitating the formation of new categories in infancy. Infants who observed the function of a series of novel artifacts were particularly likely to detect other perceptual similarities among those objects, and to respond to them categorically. Although intriguing, this initial effect requires substantial explication. The three experiments outlined here utilize forced-choice and Sequential touching measures to evaluate the nature and magnitude of function's influence on early categorization. Specifically, we explore the potential advantages conferred by object function on 1) the speed of category acquisition, 2) the retention of resulting representations and 3) the generalizability of those representations to other contexts. These studies should provide valuable insights into the impact of object function as a constraint on early categorization. In so doing, it will have broad implications for current theories of categorization in infancy and beyond. The proposed studies will also lay the groundwork for a systematic study of the mechanisms underlying the facilitative effect of function. Not only will they highlight the value of better understanding this phenomenon, but they will establish the viability of new stimuli and methods for pursuing that understanding.
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0.958 |
2005 — 2010 |
Booth, Amy |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Object Function as Facilitator of Categorization in Infancy @ Northwestern University
Our world is composed of an infinite expanse of objects, events, and object properties that must be meaningfully organized by anyone attempting to survive in it. Remarkably, even infants easily categorize this complex environment into meaningful units. How do they succeed at this seemingly overwhelming task? With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Amy Booth will conduct research designed to answer this fundamental question. Specifically, she will consider whether and how infants' natural curiosity about how objects function might facilitate their learning of new categories. The research will be conducted on 14-month-old infants who will be introduced to novel categories under a number of different conditions. Variations in learning success should reveal the components of object function that provide support for forming new categories, as well as the mechanisms by which they do so.
Dr. Booth's project will have important implications for theories of early categorization and conceptual development. More broadly, the impacts of this project include applications to early education and intervention programs. The better we understand the mechanisms underlying early conceptual development, the better we will be equipped to identify the experiences that will foster optimal cognitive and linguistic development in children. In addition, this project provides opportunities for several undergraduate and graduate students to directly participate in research.
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1 |
2009 — 2013 |
Booth, Amy |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Causal Supports For Early Word Learning @ Northwestern University
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
By the time children enter preschool, most are phenomenal word learners, adding new words to their vocabulary every single day. It is clear, however, that not all words are learned with equal ease. What factors determine whether, and how rapidly, a particular word becomes an accurate and lasting part of a child's vocabulary? With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Amy Booth will conduct research designed to answer this question. Specifically, she will investigate the role of richly meaningful conceptual information in facilitating early word learning. In her studies, young children will be taught made-up names for objects and animals that they have never seen before. Children will later be tested on how quickly and how well they learned the new words. Both their ability to understand the new words and to produce them on their own will be assessed. Dr. Booth's work has already demonstrated that 3- to 4-year-old children are particularly likely to learn and remember new words when they refer to objects with known causal (as opposed to superficially perceptual) properties. Moving forward, Dr. Booth will work towards explaining the mechanisms underlying this effect in a socioeconomically diverse group of children. She will also attempt to specify the impact of this effect across development and across a variety of natural learning environments.
Dr. Booth's project will be important both theoretically and practically. It will have implications for time-honored debates regarding the potentially special relationship between words and conceptually deep information. Moreover, by specifying the conditions that optimize the likelihood that a word will be acquired and retained, it will suggest educational strategies for maximizing the word-learning potential of young children from both advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds. Finally, this project provides opportunities for several undergraduate and graduate students to directly participate in research, thus helping to mentor the next generation of developmental scientists.
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1 |
2014 — 2018 |
Chase-Lansdale, P. Booth, Amy |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Specifying the Nature of the Vocabulary Gap @ University of Texas At Austin
The United States is facing an education crisis as far too many of our children enter school ill prepared to learn. Challenges to achievement begin early and are strongly connected to social disparities, with measures of vocabulary providing a particularly striking illustration. According to previous research, children from socioeconomically disadvantaged homes enter preschool knowing as many as 3000 fewer words than their peers. This gap persists into adolescence, with implications for later literacy and general academic success. This work moves beyond documenting these disparities to address how and why socioeconomic disparities lead to vocabulary differences. Specifically, the research investigates the hypothesis that differences in vocabulary may be the result of differences in children's basic ability to learn new words when the opportunity presents itself.
To this end, children from widely varying socioeconomic strata will be tested on several word learning tasks designed to index different component word learning skills. Their performance will be considered in relation to both measures of socioeconomic status and accumulated vocabulary. This project lays the foundation for an innovative approach to early intervention that focuses on teaching children how to learn words rather than solely on teaching words per se. This approach could powerfully facilitate the generalization of vocabulary gains well beyond the scope of words targeted in any particular intervention. In order for this approach to gain effective momentum, however, it is critical that this project first establish the role of word-learning skills in the 'vocabulary gap', and in so doing, identify which of a number of specific word-learning skills are in greatest need of educational intervention.
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0.943 |
2015 — 2020 |
Haden, Catherine Booth, Amy |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Exploring the Consequences of Individual Differences in Preschoolers' Causal Stance @ University of Texas At Austin
It has been increasingly recognized that promoting scientific literacy must begin early while foundational attitudes, knowledge and skills are taking shape. This project, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas and Loyola University of Chicago, will explore preschoolers' attunement to causal information -- referred to as their causal stance -- as a key component of this foundation. For example, the researchers are interested in the degree to which children seek out information about how unfamiliar objects work or can be used. By advancing our understanding of the origins and outcomes associated with the strength of children's causal stance, this project will support the development of early interventions aimed at facilitating children's participation and success in science, with a particular focus on at risk children. As such, its goals are particularly well aligned with the learning and learning environments strand of the Education and Human Resources Core Research (ECR) program. The project also has implications for professional workforce development and broadening participation in STEM fields.
This project will implement a four-year longitudinal design to address two core research goals. First, with respect to outcomes, researchers will test the hypothesis that the strength of children's causal stance at 3 years of age (measured in terms of children's preferences, as well as patterns of inquiry and exploration) is predictive of their scientific literacy and interests at 5- and 6- years of age (measured by standardized tests and surveys). Second, with respect to origins, researchers will test the hypothesis that variability in the degree to which parents talk about, and otherwise highlight, causal information (in both the laboratory and in a children's museum) relates to the strength of their children?s causal stance, as well as their longer-term scientific literacy and interests. Together, these investigations will inform discussions regarding the role of early experience in shaping scientific literacy, and relatedly, when and in what ways we might optimize children?s engagement and success in science.
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0.948 |