1. New title: Biofunctional Mutual Exclusion in Early Word Learning
Old title: The Role of Biofunctional Mutual Exclusion: An Embodied Approach to Creating Meaning in Language
Cite as
Stager, C. G., & Iran-Nejad, A. (2016). Biofunctional mutual exclusion in early word learning. Paper presented at the International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Granada, Spain, May 5-8.
OBJECTIVES
METHODS
Brian at Printing Services
Develop a biofunctional mutual exclusion (BME) theory of affective categorization
Review the early word learning literature in light of BME categorization
Highlight role of excitement in early word categorization by BME of the novel from the familiar
Explain how the familiar-to-novel BME is a dynamic thematic-to-categorical experience, not a static knowledge retrieval process
Examine word learning studies
Develop affective BME criteria
Affective component
Mind-Body Cycle
Re-review affective research (Diener and Iran-Nejad (1986
With BME in hand, examine mutual exclusivity in word categorization
Index studies of early world learning and predominance of excitement
Highlight the fit with BME as the categorization process
Recast classic permanent memory categorization into transient thematic-categorical experience
RESULTS
Levels of affect:
Novel-familiar differences are contrasted prior to lexical understanding (Mather & Plunkett, 2011), and, therefore, BME occurs in neuronal firing prior to psychological categorization (Iran-Nejad, 1980/1987).
Early word learning does not occur without affect, like excitement (Akhtar, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 1996),
Affective responses (excitement) to novelty support biofunctional understanding in thematic experience, the ground for categorical knowledge.
Affect links to themes, not categories:
Thematic knowledge bears categorical knowledge and therefore categorically indistinguishable.
Word learning occurs at a level below intentional, active direction of the learner and at the biofunctional, dynamic level of the body systems.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Biofunctional mutual exclusion (BME), as recognized in studies of positive or negative affect, is a spontaneous familiar-to-novel shift in biofunctional activity (Iran‐Nejad, 1980/1987).
So-called disambiguation paradigm in early word learning: category-to-category contrast (e.g., between presented labels for novel and familiar objects). Far above chance, children disambiguate by active attention based on their preference for the novel. Not so, according to biofunctional-understanding theory.
BME Early word learning:
Categories derive from themes, not each other.
CONCLUSIONS
SELECTED REFERENCES
What is occurring?
Learning theories analyze disambiguation behavior at the intentional level, but young children demonstrate the behavior without intentional categorization.
How does biofunctional mutual exclusion increase learning?
With excitement of novelty, affect level increases, biofunctional mutual exclusion increases, and these two facets’ interaction of affect yields a more likely environment for thematic understanding.
What is biofunctional mutual exclusion?
BME is an embodied brain-body functional activation linking affect to cognition via body-directed attention to novelty.
Akhtar, N., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (1996). The role of discourse novelty in early word learning. Child development,
Diener, E., & Iran-Nejad, A. (1986). The Relationship in Experience Between Various Types of Affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Iran-Nejad, A. (1980/1987). The schema: A long-term memory structure or a transient functional pattern. In R. J. Tierney & J. N. Anders (Eds.), Understanding reader's understanding (pp ). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum ( originally published in 1980 as The schema: A structual or a functional pattern, Center for the Study of Reading Tech. Rep. No. 159 , ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED182735).
Iran-Nejad, A. (1987). Cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(2), doi: /
Iran-Nejad, A., & Chissom, B. S. (1992). Contributions of active and dynamic self-regulation to learning. Innovative Higher Education, 17(2),
Markman, E. M., Wasow, J., & Hansen, M. B. (2003). Use of the mutual exclusivity assumption by young word learners. Cognitive Psychology, 47(3), doi: /s (03)
Mather, E., & Plunkett, K. (2010). Novel labels support 10-month-olds’ attention to novel objects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105,