ABSTRACT
Resumen En diversas investigaciones se ha observado que los infantes muestran un sesgo hacia la forma al generalizar palabras a nuevos objetos de una categoría. Sin embargo, en estudios con infantes aprendices del idioma español no se ha observado una preferencia en tareas en las que se contrastan objetos similares en la forma, la textura y el color. El objetivo de la presente investigación fue comparar la habilidad de dos grupos de infantes hispanohablantes de 24 meses de edad para formar nuevas categorías a partir de la forma y color como características definitorias. Se empleó el Paradigma intermodal de Atención Preferencial. Los resultados mostraron que los infantes formaron categorías a partir de la forma, pero no del color. Aunque en estudios anteriores no se ha observado un sesgo, si se induce la formación de categorías, los infantes de lengua hispana muestran una preferencia por la forma como característica definitoria cuando se contrasta con el color, se discute en torno a la relación entre esta habilidad y el sesgo hacia la forma observado en otros estudios.
Abstract Early research has demonstrated that children extend new labels on the basis of shape. Nevertheless, some research done in Spanish language, hasn't found a shape preference in contrast to color and texture. The purpose of this research was to compare Spanish Speaking 24-month-old infants skills creating new categories based on the shape and the color of the object, using these categories independently as major characteristics. The Preferential Attention Intermodal Paradigm was used. The output showed that infants formed categories based mainly on the object's shape rather than the color. Although previous studies have not observed a shape bias, this evidence shows that, when the formation of categories is induced, spanish-speaking infants show a preference for defining the shape as the main feature when contrasted with the color. The relationship among this categorization ability and a bias towards the form, seen in other studies, is discussed.
ABSTRACT
El propósito del presente estudio fue determinar si la velocidad de procesamiento, medida como tiempo de reacción (TR), de infantes antes del primer año de edad obtenida en una tarea de aprendizaje de palabras, puede ser un indicador del desempeño de los mismos en medidas de habilidades comunicativas durante el segundo año de vida. Para ello, se obtuvo el TR de infantes de 10 meses de edad en una tarea de aprendizaje de palabras y se relacionó con las habilidades comunicativas de los mismos infantes obtenidos en el Inventario de Habilidades Comunicativas MacArthur Versión II (CDI-II) 18 meses después. Se realizó un análisis de regresión lineal utilizando el TR en la tarea experimental como predictor y el puntaje de vocabulario obtenido como variable dependiente. Se encontró que el TR medido a los 10 meses de edad puede usarse como predictor del desempeño en la medida de vocabulario en los mismos infantes un año y medio después. Los resultados obtenidos en este trabajo resaltan la importancia del estudio del TR en edades tempranas y sus efectos sobre el proceso de aprendizaje de palabras.
The aim of this study was to determine if processing speed, measured as visual reaction time (RT), of 10 month-olds obtained through an IPLP (Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm) in a word learning task, can be an indicator of communicative abilities such as productive vocabulary, during the second year of life. Participants were 13 infants of 9-12 months of age (X=10.15) at the beginning of the study, whose native language was Spanish and without visual or auditory problems reported by parents. The same group of infants was evaluated when they were between 24 and 30 months of age. Infants' RT's were obtained at the age of 10 months in a word learning task, and related to communicative abilities measured with the Inventario de Habilidades Comunicativas MacArthur Versión II (CDI-II) when the infants were between 24 and 30 months of age (X=27.10). A linear regression analysis was performed using the RT from the experimental task as a predictor and the CDI-II vocabulary score as dependent variable. It was found that RT measured at 10 months of age can be used as a predictor of the vocabulary size in the same infants 18 months later. The results presented here imply that infants who take longer in processing a novel object associated with a novel word, are the ones who will have more words in their productive vocabulary during the second year of life, as reported by parents. The measures of processing speed in this study, demonstrates the length of time it takes a child to process non-familiar information in real time. The results obtained, support the study of processing speed at early ages in tasks that measure cognitive abilities other than word recognition. It suggests taking into account the analysis of individual differences, either processing speed or vocabulary, to better understand the relationship between these two variables in the first years of life. Furthermore, the results obtained in this paper highlight the importance of the study of RT in early ages and give information about the effects of slower or faster information processing over different linguistic abilities in infants.
ABSTRACT
En la escritura convencional de oraciones y de textos, las palabras están separadas por espacios en blanco. Sin embargo, en los inicios de la alfabetización suelen observarse hiposegmentaciones e hipersegmentaciones entre palabras. Las investigaciones sobre el tema son escasas, limitándose a registrar su aparición, sin llegar a establecer todos los tipos de uniones o separaciones. En función de ello, a partir de un diseño descriptivo transeccional correlacional, el propósito de este trabajo fue caracterizar el tipo y frecuencia de separaciones no convencionales entre palabras que aparecen durante el primer año de escolaridad en niños argentinos y mexicanos con expectativas de logro diferentes. En segundo lugar, examinar las posibles relaciones que guardan esas separaciones con el desempeño lector y el nivel de vocabulario. Para ello, se examinaron 30 niños argentinos y mexicanos que tenían entre 6 y 7 años de edad mediante pruebas de escritura, lectura y vocabulario. En el análisis lingüístico de las producciones infantiles se utilizó la noción gramatical de formante morfológico que posibilitó caracterizar la totalidad y distribución de las segmentaciones no convencionales. Los resultados más significativos aportan evidencia empírica de la presencia de tales segmentaciones en los niveles iniciales del aprendizaje y una distribución semejante del tipo de errores cometidos, independientemente de la nacionalidad y exigencias en la alfabetización. Se concluye, con las limitaciones del caso en razón del número de niños incluidos, que parecen constituir una etapa evolutiva, a ser considerada en futuras investigaciones y en estrategias de enseñanza de la escritura de oraciones y textos.
In conventional writing of sentences and texts, the words are separated by blank spaces. However, the beginnings of literacy often observed hypo-segmentations and hyper-segmentations between words. Hypo-segmentation occurs when adequate separation between words is missing, whereas hyper-segmentation takes place when a word is separated incorrectly and a space is inserted between two of its elements. Research on this topic is scarce and has registered the appearance of arbitrary joints and separations both in content and functional words, but has failed to account for all of the phenomena observed in children's writing. This paper has two aims: first of all, characterize the type and frequency of the unconventional separations between words written at the end of the first year of primary schooling in Mexican and Argentinian children, by reason of the different literacy modalities of both countries. The expectations prescribed in the curricula of both countries are different: Mexico expected children to learn to read and write words and sentences at the end of preschool. In Argentina those expectations are related to the first cycle of primary schooling. Regarding the teaching methodologies to which the children screened were exposed, although it is not possible to characterize them as exhaustive, since teachers often introduce different variants, they are predominantly phonic in the case of Mexico, and derived from the psychogenesis of the language written in the case of Argentina. Second, identifying the possible connection between these phenomena and variables as reading, writing and vocabulary performance range. Therefore, thirty Argentinian and Mexican children between six and seven years of age (mean age: six years and nine months) were examined through (both spontaneous and dictated) writing, reading and vocabulary tests. The notion of morphological formants was used to linguistic analysis of child productions; this allowed for the categorization of all the unconventional segmentations which came up. Among some of the results of this study, we would like that the proposed classification turned out to be extremely useful and even more adequate than other classifications in terms of word -function and word -content. Secondly, it should be pointed out that unconventional separations were more frequently observed in dictations. Thirdly, Mexican children obtained higher scores when reading words and pseudo-words, which demonstrate that they have better control of the alphabetic principle in comparison with the Argentinian ones. Fourthly, and in agreement with other research, hypo-segmentation frequency of appearance turned out to be higher than hyper-segmentation, both groups displaying similar characteristics. On the one hand, the average scores for the mistakes made failed to show any significant differences in terms of children's nationalities. On the other hand, even though such hypo-segmentations mostly appeared due to union of a lexical and a grammatical formant, in other cases only lexical or grammatical formants were joined, which proves once again how useful the categorization was. Finally, correlations with the levels of word reading and writing, reading comprehension and vocabulary range turned out to be low. In connection with this, with the limitations of the case number, it can be pointed out that wrong segmentation goes beyond the children's performance within such variables and seems to be an evolutive stage within the progressive control of reflection upon and conscious manipulation of lexical items. It would prove interesting to increase the study to one larger number of participants and made longitudinal studies, during the schooling process enabling to clear out the evolution of the phenomena examined throughout the schooling period. It should be pointed out that unconventional word separations are not always spotted at school and that their persistence, unless proper intervention strategies are used, may have subsequent repercussions on text production, which corresponds to more advanced schooling levels.