Neural correlates of unconventional verb extensions reveal preschoolers' analogical abilities.
J Exp Child Psychol
; 246: 105984, 2024 Oct.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38879929
ABSTRACT
In the current event-related potential (ERP) study, we assessed 4-year-olds' ability to extend verbs to new action events on the basis of abstract similarities. Participants were presented with images of actions (e.g., peeling an orange) while hearing sentences containing a conventional verb (e.g., peeling), a verb sharing an abstract relation (i.e., an analogical verb, e.g., undressing), a verb sharing an object type (i.e., an object-related verb, e.g., pressing) with the action, or a pseudoverb (e.g., kebraying). The amplitude of the N400 gradually increased as a function of verb type-from conventional verbs to analogical verbs to object-related verbs to pseudoverbs. These findings suggest that accessing the meaning of a verb is easier when it shares abstract relations with the expected verb. Our results illustrate that measuring brain signals in response to analogical word extensions provides a useful tool to investigate preschools' analogical abilities.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Potenciales Evocados
Límite:
Child, preschool
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Female
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Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Exp Child Psychol
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos