VOCABULARY EXPANSION IN SEVERE MENTAL RETARDATION

严重智力低下患者的词汇扩展

• 批准号: 2616986
• 负责人: KRISTA M WILKINSON
• 金额: $ 9.41万
• 依托单位: EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER CTR MTL RETARDATN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-04-01 至 2003-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2616986
• 关键词: Williams syndrome; behavioral /social science research tag; child (0-11); clinical research; cognition; human subject; language development; language disorders; memory; mental retardation; neural information processing; verbal learning; vocabulary

DESCRIPTION: In typically-developing children initially slow, one-at-a-time word learning is followed by an apparent explosion in their lexicon. One estimate suggests that children are learning up to nine new words a day. By contrast, for some individuals with severe mental retardation new words enter the lexicon only through slow and deliberate effort. Yet word learning is a foundational component of human development, necessary for advanced linguistic functions and contributing to complex representational skills (e.g., categorization). To the extent that a cognitive disability interferes with word learning, progress in these domains will be correspondingly limited. It is therefore essential to explore in detail the nature of lexical impairments in severe mental retardation. The existence of difficulties in lexical acquisition among individuals with severe mental retardation raises important questions. When rapid vocabulary expansion occurs, what linguistic cognitive processes support that learning? When it does not occur, what skills are deficient or absent? A phenomenon called fast mapping may be of greatest potential relevance for rapid vocabulary expansion. Fast mapping refers to a quick, initial partial understanding of a new word's meaning derived from the context of word use. Fast mapping has been argued to facilitate the vocabulary explosion. This proposed role has received empirical confirmation in typical youngsters and children with Down syndrome. Yet evidence from children with atypical cognition/language has recently challenged the universality of this relation. The Principal Investigator's studies have added to the preliminary evidence of selective deficits in fast mapping among individuals with severe mental retardation, William's syndrome, or specific language impairments. The deficits are most often observed when individuals attempt to apply the principle for the purpose of vocabulary expansion. These recent findings oblige a more systematic analysis of the precise role of the principle in learning outcomes in mental retardation. Is fast mapping at risk in individuals with severe mental retardation, potentially limiting their vocabulary expansion? This application proposes a five-year study of vocabulary expansion and delay, focusing specifically on rapid expansion of an extant, but limited, vocabulary. The proposed series of studies will implement methods developed by the Principal Investigator that will enable the systematic analysis of unresolved questions of lexical expansion in severe mental retardation. The project has four specific aims that will be addressed in the course of four studies: 1) To examine the relation of fast mapping, rapid vocabulary expansion, and nonverbal processes, in order to explore the nature of lexical expansion in severe mental retardation; 2) To explore the points of greatest vulnerability for learning through fast mapping by explicitly taxing participants' skills and observing the ways in which breakdowns occur; 3) To extend the analysis from the commonly examined object-word learning to the acquisition of action-related words, to determine whether processes of fast mapping are similar for the two types of form/class categories; 4) To examine the basis underlying children's apparent assumption that new words should and do map to unnamed objects, and whether this assumption is intact among individuals with severe mental retardation.

描述：在典型的开发儿童中，最初较慢，一次一次 单词学习之后是其词典中明显的爆炸。 一 估计表明，儿童每天最多要学习九个新单词。 经过 对比，对于某些患有严重智力低下的人新单词 仅通过缓慢而故意的努力进入词典。 但是说话 学习是人类发展的基本组成部分，对于 高级语言功能，并为复杂的代表性做出贡献 技能（例如，分类）。 在某种程度上是认知障碍 干扰单词学习，这些领域的进步将是 相应地有限。 因此，必须详细探索 严重智力障碍中词汇障碍的性质。 存在 严重精神的个体词汇获取困难 迟钝提出了重要的问题。 快速词汇扩展时 发生，哪些语言认知过程支持该学习？ 什么时候 没有发生，哪些技能不足或不存在？ 一种称为的现象 快速映射可能与快速词汇具有最大的潜在相关性 扩张。 快速映射是指对 一个新单词的含义源自单词使用的上下文。 快速映射具有 被认为是为了促进词汇爆炸。 这个拟议的角色有 在典型的年轻人和儿童中获得了经验证实 综合征。 然而，有非典型认知/语言儿童的证据 最近挑战了这种关系的普遍性。 校长 研究者的研究增加了选择性的初步证据 严重智力低下的个体中快速映射的缺陷， 威廉综合症或特定语言障碍。 赤字最多 经常观察到个人试图将原则应用于 词汇扩展的目的。 这些最近的发现更多 系统分析该原理在学习中的精确作用 智力低下的结果。 患有患者的人有迅速映射 严重的智力低下，可能限制其词汇膨胀？ 该申请提出了五年的词汇扩张研究和 延迟，专门针对现存但有限的快速扩展， 词汇。 拟议的一系列研究将实施开发的方法 由首席研究员将实现系统分析 在严重智力障碍中未解决的词汇扩张问题。 这 项目具有四个特定目标，将在四个过程中解决 研究：1）检查快速绘制，快速词汇的关系 扩展和非语言过程，以探索 严重智力障碍的词汇扩张； 2）探索点 通过明确映射学习的最大脆弱性 向参与者的技能征税，并观察细分的方式 发生; 3）从常见检查的对象字中扩展分析 学习获取与动作相关的单词，以确定是否 两种类型的表单/类的快速映射过程相似 类别； 4）检查基本儿童的明显基础 假设新单词应该并且确实映射到未命名的对象，以及是否 在严重智力障碍的个体中，这一假设完好无损。