Social Foundations of Language Acquisition Joint Attention Social Foundations of Language Acquisition

Early Communications Marked by Contingency and Inter-subjectivity Contingency: Back-and-forth reciprocity in a social exchange Inter-subjectivity: Mentally sharing an experience

Important Researchers Trevarthan Primary Intersubjectivity: Understanding that others are separate entities from oneself (Newborns +) Secondary intersubjectivity: Understanding that others have individual perspectives and intentions, and being able to share in these (9-12 months +)

Important Researchers Bruner Dyadic Interaction: Exchange between two individuals attending to one another Triadic interaction: A shared exchange between two individuals about a third entity

Evidence for Social Foundations Early Communications Topic Sharing Dyadic communications (2-4 mos) primary inter-subjectivity Shift from People to Objects (5-6 mos) infant develops the manual skills to explore objects directs attention to objects more than people: attn to mom at 6 wks is 70%, at 26 wks is 30% Triadic Communications (9-12 mos) infant begins to coordinate attention with a partner to objects (secondary intersubjectivity)

Joint Attention Triadic Interaction ‘Topic’ of interaction is outside the dyad Shared interest and communication about an object or event

Evidence for Social Foundations of Language The role of Joint Attention in Language Development Tomasello Leading researcher on JA Found links between JA and language skills Early study: Tomasello & Farrar (83) Naturalistic Observation Experimental Paradigm Nonsense Word Learning Found that: JA -> Word Comprehension + Production

Autism Lack ability for joint attention Difficulty with Language acquisition Show Video (Click here)

Evolution of Communication Dyadic found in other Species Triadic uniquely human? Only humans motivated to share meaning with others Found across cultures

Today’s Exercise Part I: Data Collection Watch an infant from India and an infant from Canada (Click links for videos ** Removed**) Child is shown 8 different pictures by a researcher Does the child look back and forth between person and picture? Circle Yes or No for each picture Add the total of ‘Yes’ answers

Part II: Data Analysis Go to Lab 4 Materials on Janea’s website www.stfx.ca/people/jlayes Right-click the ‘SPSS Data File’, select ‘Save Target/Link As’ and save to Desktop Open SPSS from WebFX Applications on your Desktop Follow directions on handout to complete t-test and interpret results Submit Exercise Sheet before leaving