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Infants' ability to use a nonhuman speaker's gaze to establish word-reference

Title:

Infants' ability to use a nonhuman speaker's gaze to establish word-reference

O'Connell, Laura (2007) Infants' ability to use a nonhuman speaker's gaze to establish word-reference. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

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Abstract

By 18 months of age, infants can link a novel word with the target of a speaker's gaze, suggesting that they are sensitive to the speakers' referential intentions. Adopting a procedure developed with human speakers, infants' ability to follow and use a nonhuman agent's gaze when learning new words was examined. A programmable robot acted as the speaker (Experiment 1). Infants followed its gaze toward the word referent whether or not it coincided with their own focus of attention but failed to learn a new word in either case. Infants correctly mapped words in both cases when the speaker was human (Experiment 2). While having eyes appears sufficient to elicit gaze-following in 18-month-olds, it does not suffice for the attribution of referential intentions.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Psychology
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:O'Connell, Laura
Pagination:viii, 49 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M.A.
Program:Psychology
Date:2007
Thesis Supervisor(s):Poulin-Dubois, Diane
Identification Number:LE 3 C66P79M 2007 O256
ID Code:975407
Deposited By: Concordia University Library
Deposited On:22 Jan 2013 16:07
Last Modified:13 Jul 2020 20:07
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