Infants' lexical comprehension and lexical anticipation abilities are closely linked in early language development.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 100890607 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1532-7078 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 15327078 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Infancy Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2010- : Hoboken : Wiley-Blackwell
Original Publication: Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, c2000-

Comprehension* ; Language Development*; Child ; Adult ; Humans ; Infant ; Language ; Hearing

Theories across cognitive domains propose that anticipating upcoming sensory input supports information processing. In line with this view, prior findings indicate that adults and children anticipate upcoming words during real-time language processing, via such processes as prediction and priming. However, it is unclear if anticipatory processes are strictly an outcome of prior language development or are more entwined with language learning and development. We operationalized this theoretical question as whether developmental emergence of comprehension of lexical items occurs before or concurrently with the anticipation of these lexical items. To this end, we tested infants of ages 12, 15, 18, and 24 months (N = 67) on their abilities to comprehend and anticipate familiar nouns. In an eye-tracking task, infants viewed pairs of images and heard sentences with either informative words (e.g., eat) that allowed them to anticipate an upcoming noun (e.g., cookie), or uninformative words (e.g., see). Findings indicated that infants' comprehension and anticipation abilities are closely linked over developmental time and within individuals. Importantly, we do not find evidence for lexical comprehension in the absence of lexical anticipation. Thus, anticipatory processes are present early in infants' second year, suggesting they are a part of language development rather than solely an outcome of it.
(© 2023 The Authors. Infancy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Congress of Infant Studies.)

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R00 HD076166 United States HD NICHD NIH HHS; R01 HD095912 United States HD NICHD NIH HHS; R03 HD079779 United States HD NICHD NIH HHS

Date Created: 20230222 Date Completed: 20230411 Latest Revision: 20230508

20240628

10.1111/infa.12534

36808682