Current Projects

Current Projects
Parents often ask us what kind of research we do, and the
answer is lots of different kinds. It's true that we basically
study child language and cognition, but there are a myriad
of research fields within that larger field. This page will
give you an overview of our current projects.

Learning Through Overhearing
Much to parents' delight (or embarrassment), children seem to
have a knack for remembering things they weren't taught
directly. Parents can often testify to the fact that their children
pick up words and facts simply by overhearing an adult
conversation. However, not much is known about children's
ability to learn new information through overhearing. We are
conducting a number of studies to try to answer some of these
questions. In particular, we are interested in the following
questions: 1) Are children better at learning words or facts
through overhearing, 2) How old do children need to be before
they start to learn information through overhearing, 3) Are
children as likely to imitate an action they "oversaw" another
adult perform as an action they were taught directly, and 4)
What role does motivation play in children's ability to learn new
words through overhearing?

Trust in Testimony
"What's that?" "What's that?" Some days it feels like "What's that?"
is all a toddler knows how to say. As children learn their first
language, they constantly turn to adults for new words. Children view
adults as experts and as trustworthy speakers. However, sometimes
children encounter an adult who misuses a word or isn't sure what
something is called. When this happens, will children continue to
learn new words from that adult? In psychology, research into
children's ability to monitor and use information about speaker
accuracy has become known as "Trust in Testimony." As most studies
in this area have examined the role of speaker reliability in noun
learning, not much is known about speaker reliability in verb learning.
Verbs tend to be more challenging for young children since the child
must learn not only the new verb but also the accompanying action.
We are interested in how children track and apply information about
speaker reliability when learning verbs. Currently, we are
investigating whether children attend more to accuracy in labeling an
action or accuracy in performing an action when learning a new verb.

Native Language Bias
These days it seems that American children are exposed to foreign
languages wherever they go. Whether it be through shows such as
"Sesame Street" and "Dora & Diego" or through classes at school,
children receive a considerate amount of exposure to Spanish and
other foreign languages. While much research has looked at the
process by which children learn words from native language speakers,
little research has looked at how children learn words from foreign
langauge speakers. Are native-English children willing to learn new
words from Spanish or Korean speakers? At what age do children
understand the concept of "foreign language"? Do young children
think foreign language speakers are confused or acting silly? We
attempt to answer these questions and many others in our Native
Language Bias studies.