‘Odd-One-Out’: Semantic Feature Representation through Babies’ Eyes

Words are organized in our mental lexicon as interrelated units with different types of shared semantic features. Some of these features are category-based, or taxonomic features (e.g., ‘cat’ and ‘dog’); some are situation-based, or thematic features (e.g., ‘dog’ and ‘leash’); and some are perceptual (e.g., ‘orange’ and ‘basketball’). How do individuals with diverse linguistic backgrounds utilize and prioritize different semantic features across development? In this talk, I will give an overview of our newly funded project on semantic feature representation development in infant- and toddler-age children growing up in English monolingual, Chinese-English, and Farsi-English bilingual environments. I will introduce the ‘odd-one-out’ task, which probes children’s semantic feature preference: children are shown an array of three pictures, the middle picture, as the standard, shares one feature with the picture to the left, and one other feature with the picture to the right. Children are expected to look at the picture that is ‘odd’ to them, which indicates a priority over the shared feature between the remaining two pictures. During my talk, I will also share preliminary eye-tracking data with the current task design and discuss future project plans. 

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

9:40 – 10:10 AM ADT