Project Summary/Abstract
The first two years of a child’s life are marked by an increasing ability to learn new words and an
exponential growth in their vocabulary. We also know that the context in which a child learns a new
word affects the integration of that word into their lexicon and has cascading effects on language growth
over time. However, the last decade has seen a rise in digital media as a source of language input,
marking a shift in the contexts in which children encounter and learn words – from rich, three-
dimensional, and interactive objects to moments that are less rich, less embodied, and more transient.
Little, however, is known about how children map, retain, and generalize words in digital forms or the
cascading impact digital media has on vocabulary growth. The goal of the current proposal is to identify
how digital media alters the mechanisms of word learning and subsequently impacts the lexical
foundation on which a child’s vocabulary is built. Specifically, the proposal aims to identify the impact
of digital media on 1) the processes underlying real-time word learning, and 2) the processes of
language generalization and vocabulary growth. Specific Aim 1 will use a novel word learning task to
test children’s ability to map and retain new words within and between digital media (2D images on a
tablet) and real world objects (3D objects). Specific Aim 2 will probe children’s novel label
generalization abilities within and between 2D and 3D modalities using a novel noun generalization
task. Further, individual differences in a child’s prior technology experience will be measured and used
to predict overall vocabulary as well as performance within and between each task. The results will
advance our understanding of language development by a) establishing whether the process of word
learning from digital media qualitatively differs from learning with real objects, and b) quantifying how
digital contexts alter the cascade by which lexical development supports vocabulary growth. Further,
the findings will have implications for predicting long-term language outcomes and forming specific
recommendations (or warnings) for educators, clinicians, and parents on when and how young
children’s technology exposure impacts word learning during these critical years.
