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. 2011 Nov;121(2):176-95.
doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.07.002. Epub 2011 Aug 12.

Who is crossing where? Infants' discrimination of figures and grounds in events

Tilbe Göksun  1 , Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Mutsumi Imai, Haruka Konishi, Hiroyuki Okada
Affiliations

Who is crossing where? Infants' discrimination of figures and grounds in events

Tilbe Göksun et al. Cognition. 2011 Nov.

Abstract

To learn relational terms such as verbs and prepositions, children must first dissect and process dynamic event components. This paper investigates the way in which 8- to 14-month-old English-reared infants notice the event components, figure (i.e., the moving entity) and ground (i.e., stationary setting), in both dynamic (Experiment 1) and static representations of events (Experiment 2) for categorical ground distinctions expressed in Japanese, but not in English. We then compare both 14- and 19-month-old English- and Japanese-reared infants' processing of grounds to understand how language learning interacts with the conceptualization of these constructs (Experiment 3). Results suggest that (1) infants distinguish between figures and grounds in events; (2) they do so differently for static vs. dynamic displays; (3) early in the second year, children from diverse language environments form nonnative - perhaps universal - event categories; and (4) these event categories shift over time as children have more exposure to their native tongue.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
a. Figures (a girl, a boy, a man, and a woman) used in the figure discrimination study. b. Grounds used in the ground discrimination study. The grounds in the top panel (railroad track, street, road, and bridge) are encoded by the Japanese verb wataru ‘a flat barrier dividing two points’ and grounds in the bottom panel (tennis court and grass) are coded by the verb tooru ‘a continuous plane.’
Figure 1
Figure 1
a. Figures (a girl, a boy, a man, and a woman) used in the figure discrimination study. b. Grounds used in the ground discrimination study. The grounds in the top panel (railroad track, street, road, and bridge) are encoded by the Japanese verb wataru ‘a flat barrier dividing two points’ and grounds in the bottom panel (tennis court and grass) are coded by the verb tooru ‘a continuous plane.’
Figure 2
Figure 2
The design and sample stimuli for the figure (top panel) and ground (bottom panel) discrimination studies
Figure 2
Figure 2
The design and sample stimuli for the figure (top panel) and ground (bottom panel) discrimination studies
Figure 3
Figure 3
Eight- and 11-month-old infants’ mean percentage of looking times in the test phase to novel vs. familiar figures (top panel) and novel vs. familiar grounds (bottom panel). *p < .05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Eight- and 11-month-old infants’ mean percentage of looking times in the test phase to novel vs. familiar figures (top panel) and novel vs. familiar grounds (bottom panel). *p < .05.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Eight- and 11-month-olds’ mean percentage of looking times to novel and familiar grounds at test in within- and across-category comparisons (ps > .05).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Fourteen-month-olds’ mean percentage of looking times to novel and familiar grounds at test in within- and across-category comparisons. *p < .05.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Fourteen-month-olds’ mean percentage of looking times to novel and familiar grounds at test in the within- and across-category comparisons in the ground discrimination study with grayscale. *p < .05.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Eight- and 11-month-olds’ mean percentage of looking times in the test phase with static displays to figures (top panel) and grounds (bottom panel). *p < .05.
Figure 8
Figure 8
English- and Japanese-reared 14- and 19-month-olds’ mean percentage of looking times to novel and familiar grounds at test in within-category (top panel) and across-category (bottom panel) comparisons (*p < .05).
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References

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