Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Teodora Gliga; Alex Skolnick; Ute Liersch; Tony Charman; Mark H. Johnson; Rachael Bedford; Simon Baron-Cohen; Patrick Bolton; Anna Blasi; Kim Davies; Mayada Elsabbagh; Janice Fernandes; Isobel Gammer; Jeanne Guiraud; Alex Hendry; Michelle Liew; Sarah Lloyd-Fox; Helen Maris; Louise O'Hara; Greg Pasco; Andrew Pickles; Helena Ribeiro; Erica Salomone; Leslie Tucker

doi:10.1017/S0305000921000416

Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Teodora Gliga^*
, Alex Skolnick
, Ute Liersch
, Tony Charman
, Mark H. Johnson
, Rachael Bedford
, Simon Baron-Cohen
, Patrick Bolton
, Anna Blasi
, Kim Davies
, Mayada Elsabbagh
, Janice Fernandes
, Isobel Gammer
, Jeanne Guiraud
, Alex Hendry
, Michelle Liew
, Sarah Lloyd-Fox
, Helen Maris
, Louise O'Hara
, Greg Pasco

Andrew Pickles, Helena Ribeiro, Erica Salomone, Leslie Tucker

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of East Anglia
Birkbeck, University of London
King's College London
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Research Unit for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Centre for Pain Research, University of Bath, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Department of Anaesthesiology & Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Clinical Health Psychology, University College London, and University College London Hospitals, and Psychology Department, Kings College London.
University of Bath

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

It was suggested that children's referent selection may not lay memory traces sufficiently strong to lead to retention of new word-object mappings. If this was the case we expect incorrect selections to be easily rectified through feedback. Previous work suggested this to be the case in toddlers at typical likelihood (TL) but not in those at elevated likelihood (EL) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Bedford et al.2013). Yet group differences in lexical knowledge may have confounded these findings. Here, TL (N = 29) and EL toddlers (N = 75) chose one of two unfamiliar objects as a referent for a new word. Both groups retained the word-referent mapping above chance when their choices were immediately reinforced but were at chance after corrective feedback. The same pattern of results was obtained when children observed another experimenter make the initial referent choice. Thus, children's referent choices lay memory traces that compete with subsequent correction; these strong word-object associations are not a result of children actively choosing potential referents for new words.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-13
Number of pages	13
Journal	JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000921000416
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 2021

Keywords

Autism Spectrum Disorders
corrective feedback
referent selection
toddlers
word learning

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10.1017/S0305000921000416

Cite this

Gliga, T., Skolnick, A., Liersch, U., Charman, T., Johnson, M. H., Bedford, R., Baron-Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Blasi, A., Davies, K., Elsabbagh, M., Fernandes, J., Gammer, I., Guiraud, J., Hendry, A., Liew, M., Lloyd-Fox, S., Maris, H., O'Hara, L., ... Tucker, L. (Accepted/In press). Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000921000416

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title = "Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder",

abstract = "It was suggested that children's referent selection may not lay memory traces sufficiently strong to lead to retention of new word-object mappings. If this was the case we expect incorrect selections to be easily rectified through feedback. Previous work suggested this to be the case in toddlers at typical likelihood (TL) but not in those at elevated likelihood (EL) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Bedford et al.2013). Yet group differences in lexical knowledge may have confounded these findings. Here, TL (N = 29) and EL toddlers (N = 75) chose one of two unfamiliar objects as a referent for a new word. Both groups retained the word-referent mapping above chance when their choices were immediately reinforced but were at chance after corrective feedback. The same pattern of results was obtained when children observed another experimenter make the initial referent choice. Thus, children's referent choices lay memory traces that compete with subsequent correction; these strong word-object associations are not a result of children actively choosing potential referents for new words. ",

keywords = "Autism Spectrum Disorders, corrective feedback, referent selection, toddlers, word learning",

author = "Teodora Gliga and Alex Skolnick and Ute Liersch and Tony Charman and Johnson, \{Mark H.\} and Rachael Bedford and Simon Baron-Cohen and Patrick Bolton and Anna Blasi and Kim Davies and Mayada Elsabbagh and Janice Fernandes and Isobel Gammer and Jeanne Guiraud and Alex Hendry and Michelle Liew and Sarah Lloyd-Fox and Helen Maris and Louise O'Hara and Greg Pasco and Andrew Pickles and Helena Ribeiro and Erica Salomone and Leslie Tucker",

year = "2021",

doi = "10.1017/S0305000921000416",

language = "English",

pages = "1--13",

journal = "JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE",

issn = "0305-0009",

publisher = "Cambridge University Press",

}

Gliga, T, Skolnick, A, Liersch, U, Charman, T, Johnson, MH, Bedford, R, Baron-Cohen, S, Bolton, P , Blasi, A, Davies, K, Elsabbagh, M, Fernandes, J , Gammer, I, Guiraud, J, Hendry, A, Liew, M, Lloyd-Fox, S, Maris, H, O'Hara, L, Pasco, G , Pickles, A, Ribeiro, H, Salomone, E & Tucker, L 2021, 'Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder', JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE, pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000921000416

TY - JOUR

T1 - Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder

AU - Gliga, Teodora

AU - Skolnick, Alex

AU - Liersch, Ute

AU - Charman, Tony

AU - Johnson, Mark H.

AU - Bedford, Rachael

AU - Baron-Cohen, Simon

AU - Bolton, Patrick

AU - Blasi, Anna

AU - Davies, Kim

AU - Elsabbagh, Mayada

AU - Fernandes, Janice

AU - Gammer, Isobel

AU - Guiraud, Jeanne

AU - Hendry, Alex

AU - Liew, Michelle

AU - Lloyd-Fox, Sarah

AU - Maris, Helen

AU - O'Hara, Louise

AU - Pasco, Greg

AU - Pickles, Andrew

AU - Ribeiro, Helena

AU - Salomone, Erica

AU - Tucker, Leslie

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - It was suggested that children's referent selection may not lay memory traces sufficiently strong to lead to retention of new word-object mappings. If this was the case we expect incorrect selections to be easily rectified through feedback. Previous work suggested this to be the case in toddlers at typical likelihood (TL) but not in those at elevated likelihood (EL) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Bedford et al.2013). Yet group differences in lexical knowledge may have confounded these findings. Here, TL (N = 29) and EL toddlers (N = 75) chose one of two unfamiliar objects as a referent for a new word. Both groups retained the word-referent mapping above chance when their choices were immediately reinforced but were at chance after corrective feedback. The same pattern of results was obtained when children observed another experimenter make the initial referent choice. Thus, children's referent choices lay memory traces that compete with subsequent correction; these strong word-object associations are not a result of children actively choosing potential referents for new words.

AB - It was suggested that children's referent selection may not lay memory traces sufficiently strong to lead to retention of new word-object mappings. If this was the case we expect incorrect selections to be easily rectified through feedback. Previous work suggested this to be the case in toddlers at typical likelihood (TL) but not in those at elevated likelihood (EL) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Bedford et al.2013). Yet group differences in lexical knowledge may have confounded these findings. Here, TL (N = 29) and EL toddlers (N = 75) chose one of two unfamiliar objects as a referent for a new word. Both groups retained the word-referent mapping above chance when their choices were immediately reinforced but were at chance after corrective feedback. The same pattern of results was obtained when children observed another experimenter make the initial referent choice. Thus, children's referent choices lay memory traces that compete with subsequent correction; these strong word-object associations are not a result of children actively choosing potential referents for new words.

KW - Autism Spectrum Disorders

KW - corrective feedback

KW - referent selection

KW - toddlers

KW - word learning

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85109415097

U2 - 10.1017/S0305000921000416

DO - 10.1017/S0305000921000416

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85109415097

SN - 0305-0009

SP - 1

EP - 13

JO - JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE

JF - JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE

ER -

Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Keywords

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