ERIC Number: EJ1010396
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1525-0008
EISSN: N/A
The Organization of Words and Symbolic Gestures in 18-Month-Olds' Lexicons: Evidence from a Disambiguation Task
Suanda, Sumarga H.; Namy, Laura L.
Infancy, v18 n2 p276-288 Mar-Apr 2013
Infants' early communicative repertoires include both words and symbolic gestures. The current study examined the extent to which infants organize words and gestures in a single unified lexicon. As a window into lexical organization, eighteen-month-olds' ("N" = 32) avoidance of word-gesture overlap was examined and compared with avoidance of word-word overlap. The current study revealed that when presented with novel words, infants avoided lexical overlap, mapping novel words onto novel objects. In contrast, when presented with novel gestures, infants sought overlap, mapping novel gestures onto familiar objects. The results suggest that infants do not treat words and gestures as equivalent lexical items and that during a period of development when word and symbolic gesture processing share many similarities, important differences also exist between these two symbolic forms. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 3 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Infants, Vocabulary, Nonverbal Communication, Organization, Language Processing, Novelty (Stimulus Dimension), Language Acquisition, Familiarity
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A