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Convergence and divergencein representational systems -

place learningand language in young children

Frances Balcomb

Temple University

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• Emergent place learning in the Morris water maze • Early expressive language

– What does early place learning look like?– How does PL relate to other types of spatial navigation?– How does PL relate to other types of cognitive

development?

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Funding provided by

Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center

National Science Foundation Science of Learning

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Why study space…

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Space and Language

• Complementary representational systems• Undergo rapid development from about 16-24

months– Vocabulary explosion, 2-word combinations– Shift from ego to allocentric, place learning

• When you put space and language together, you merge two very powerful representational systems and level up

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Spatial Representation

• Allows for representation in non-linear, non-linguistic domains

• Is evident in – Gesture– Drawings– Language

• “looking forward to it”

• “In the back of my mind”

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Space and Language

• Complementary representational systems• Undergo rapid development from about 16-24

months– Vocabulary explosion, 2-word combinations– Shift from ego to allocentric, place learning

• When you put space and language together, you merge two very powerful representational systems and level up

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Space and Language - Dissociations

• Working Memory – Baddeley: phonological loop & visuospatial sketchpad

• Standard Intelligence– WAIS - perceptual-organization and verbal composites– Woodcock-Johnson - visuo-spatial and phonemic awareness

clusters• Brain areas

– Language: Broca’s & Wernicke’s– Space: hippocampus et al

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Space and Language - Connections

• Specificity Hypothesis (Gopnik & Meltzoff 1986, 1987)• Evidence from children with Williams Syndrome

– Landau & Zukowski, 2003 - path terms (prepositions)

– Phillips, Jarrold, Baddeley, Grant, & Karmiloff-Smith (2004)

• In, on, above, below, in front, behind, shorter/smaller, longer/bigger

• Brain areas may overlap– Temporal lobe, parahippocampus, dorsal and

ventral streams

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Summary

• In some aspects space and language are able to function independently and can be accessed separately

• If you look in the right places, they appear to be inter-linked

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Foundational Processes

• Language is well - studied• Space is less well-studied

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Place Learning

• Navigational techniques– Egocentric

• Retrace your steps

– Allocentric• Landmarks• Place learning

• dg

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What is known about early navigation?

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What is known about early navigation?

• Ordered progression of skill development– ego-centric, beacon/landmark, place learning

• Dynamic use of spatial skills, even early in development– Familiarity, cue salience, task demands

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Acredolo & Evans, 1980

• 6-, 9-, & 11-month-olds• Modified version of the plus-maze• No feature, plain feature, salient feature, salient indirect

feature

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“tone”

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“tone”

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“tone”

egocentric allocentric

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No Cue

“tone”

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Non-Salient Cue

“tone”

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Salient Direct Cue

“tone”

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Salient Indirect Cue

“tone”

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Results

Cue Type

age None Non Salient

Salient Direct

Salient Indirect

6 months Ego Ego Mixed Ego

9 months Ego Ego (mixed)

Allo Ego (mixed)

11 months Ego Ego & Allo (mixed)

Allo Mixed (allo)

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How does this compare to adults and non-humans?

• After few trials - place response• After many trials - shift to egocentric• Individual variability exists

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Brain - behavior issues

• Strategy types related to – caudate/striatum (egocentric/response learning– hippocampus (place)– May be competitive (Compton et al, 2004)

• HC learning vs Caudate– HC fast, not dependent on feedback– Caudate - slower, dependent on error signal

• In development the picture is not so clear

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What is known about early navigation?

• Place emerges rapidly between 18-24 months– Children begin to use external cues to improve

search accuracy • Newcombe, Huttenlocher, & Drummey, & Wiley (1998)

– Children begin to use relational searches• Sluzenski, Newcombe & Satlow (2004)

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Newcombe et al 1998

XX X

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Newcombe et al 1998

X

Feature3

Feature1

Feature2

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Newcombe et al, 1998

Newcombe, Huttenlocher, Drummey & Wiley

(1998), Cognitive Development

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Research Questions

• Are there individual differences in early place learning abilities?

• Do language and spatial representations develop independently?

• What is the relationship between the developing brain and emergent behavior?

• Relationship between place learning and other navigation types

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Morris Water Maze

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Morris Water Maze

Room Cue 1

Room Cue 3

Room Cue 2

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Because this task has been well researched in adults and non-human animals we know

• Hippocampal dependent• Good performance looks different from poor

performance• There are gender differences in adults• Aging adults differ from younger adults

Morris Water Maze

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Morris water maze for kids

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Methods

• Subjects– Children aged 16-24 months,

(m=20.6) – N=32

• Tasks – Parents - language measure– Children - place learning

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Expressive Language

• MacArthur Communicative Inventory for Toddlers• Parent report• 226 word checklist - expressive language only

– 100 Nouns, 100 verbs, 26 prepositions

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Place Learning

• Materials– 10’ diameter carpeted circle divided into squares, off

center– Battery operated puzzle

• Tasks – Locate puzzle hidden under carpet– Remember puzzle location

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X

cueA

cueCcueD

cueB

X X

X

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Procedures

• Familiarization• Learning

– 4 trials to learn the puzzle’s location– Different points of entry

• Test– Same as learning trials– No puzzle

• Control– Control for motivation & walking speed– Puzzle clearly visible

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Predictions

• Place Learning – Older children > younger (goal-finding)

• Language– Older children > younger (more expressive vocabulary)

• Place learning & language– No correlation between overall language and PL– Correlation between prepositions & PL

• Often in development it’s very hard to find correlations with language

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Results

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Results

• Age correlates with– # times goal found: r(26)=.63, p<.001– Expressive language: r(26)=.7, p<.001

• Partial out age– No correlation between # times goal found and

expressive language r(25)=.19, p=.35

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0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

16-18 19-21 22-24

Age in months

Percentage achieved

goal found/5

Expressivevocab/226

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More detailed analyses

• Search types– Spatial (perimeter, correct quad)– Non spatial (under self, other, unrelated)

• Language– Nouns, verbs, preps, total lang, relational lang (verbs +

prepositions)

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X

Peripheral Searches (proximal cue use)

cueA

cueCcueD

cueB

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X

Correct Quadrant Search (distal cue use = place learning)

cueA

cueCcueD

cueB

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Non-spatial searches

• Under self (child lifts tile under him/herself)• Under other (child approaches experimenter & lifts tile

under her)• Unrelated - none of the above

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X

Unrelated Searches

cueA

cueCcueD

cueB

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searches, age, and goal finding

Measure Age Spatial Non-spatial # times goal found

Age -- .45* -.62* .63*

Spatial -- .-73* .46 *

Non-spatial -- -.48 *

Intercorrelations between search type, age and goal finding

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Type of search and goal finding by age

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Age in months

goal found/5

spatial

non-spatial

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Age in months

goal found/5

spatial

non-spatial

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0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24

Age in months

spatial

nonspatial

found/5

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Types of Spatial Searches with Age

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Age in months

spatial

adj

periph

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Space and Language

Measure Nouns Verbs Preps # times goal found # searches under “other”

Nouns -- .83 .67 .21 (.30) .33 (.09)

Verbs -- .79 .11 (.59) .38 (.05)

Preps -- .39 (.05) .23 (.25)

# times goal found

-- -.34 (.08)

Intercorrelations between language and spatial searches

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prepositions and place learning

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

0.18

0.2

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

# times goal found

proportion of preps/total vocab

60

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2

proportion preps/total language

found/5

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Summary

• Place learning and expressive language develop independently with age in 16-24 month old children– Evidence of spatial searching 1-2 months before reliable

goal finding – Rapid change at around 20-21 months

• Acquisition of prepositions and place learning correlate– Convergent evidence comes from research with children

who have Williams Syndrome• Acquisition of other language marginally correlates with

searching under a person (social?)– Interestingly, though, in this task it’s misleading

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Representations that rely on understanding spatial relationships between objects emerge behaviorally (successful goal searches) and linguistically (prepositions) on a developmentally related timescale

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Future Directions

• Get a job• Modified plus maze– What affects differential weighting– Caudate - HC competition?

• Episodic-like/context-dependent memory