Andre Luiz Souza, M.A

The University of Texas at Austin

Current Research

The Embodiment Hypothesis: The Role of Action in the Acquisition of Verb Meaning

 

There seems to be no doubt that language acquisition is a highly sophisticated cognitive activity. This seems to be the reason why language and cognition have pervasively been taken into account altogether. There has also been an increasing interest recently on the study of cognition and its relation to the physical world and situatedness of cognitive activities (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999; Dourish, 2001; Anderson, 2003 and Barsalou, 2003). As an essentially cognitive activity, language acquisition is also thought of in terms of its relation to the physicality and situatedness of the world. In other words, it is believed that even abstract linguistic representations are influenced by more concrete, sensori-motor representations (Barsalou, 2003). This idea is known as the Embodiment Hypothesis.

This research investigates the role of action performance in young children’s acquisition of verb meanings. More specifically, the goal of the study is to find out how the information acquired through physical engagement of action verbs contributes to children’s conceptual understanding of these verbs. Ultimately, the main goal of the project is to show evidence that the acquisition of linguistic concepts is a highly embodied and situated activity.

 

 

 

Children’s Understanding of Referential Intent: Implications for Language Development

Coordinated by Dr. Catharine Echols

 

 

There’s a number of studies that have shown that such cues are central to the process of word learning by young children (Baldwin, 1996; Tomasello, 2001). This research then investigates (1) to what extent cues to referential intent are available in the input children get from their conspecifics, (2) if children are able to recognize such cues and use them, (3) if the variation in the availability of cues to referential intent affects the rate of word learning, (4) if social economic differences are reflected in the extent to which parents provide such cues and finally (5) if there is any significant cultural difference in how parents provide cues to referential intent.

This longitudinal investigates these possibilities. The data was collected at three different times: first when the child was 9 months, then 13 months and then 18 months. To assess children’s ability to engage in several joint attention behaviors, we have been using the Early Social Communicative Scales - ESCS - developed by Mundy, Hogan and Doehring (1996). Also, we have been using measurements of language development.

The study has also been conducted in Brazil under the supervision of Dr. Claudia Cardoso-Martins, coordinator of the Laboratorio de Psicologia do Desenvolvimento Cognitivo e da Linguagem  at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.

 

 

 

Evaluating Evidence about Supernatural and Natural Systems of Explanations

Coordinated by Dr. Cristine Legare

 

Under Construction.