5 ms·

Conceptual knowledge increases infants' memory capacity (2008)

59 points by rzk 5y ago

rzk 5y ago
TL;DR[0]: If you hide toys while a baby watches, they can remember up to 3 hiding places. But if you name the toys aloud with nonsense words ("dax," "blicket") before hiding them, babies can remember up to 6 hiding places. Even if all the toys look identical. [0] https://twitter.com/LFeldmanBarrett/status/1493357558823849988 https://twitter.com/LFeldmanBarrett/status/14933575588238499...
- kgwxd 5y ago
  Why nonsense words? Aren't all words nonsense words to babies?
  - zanderwohl 5y ago
    I think that's the idea. It's showing that they don't need to tie the toy to an existing word they may have heard from a parent, babies acquire language quickly enough most of the time to assign a new word to a concept instantly.
    - donw 5y ago
      That makes no sense.
      - germinalphrase 5y ago
        Why not? The child has no prior word referent but is able to quickly establish one which allows them to track a larger number of hidden objects.
  - batman-farts 5y ago
    Possibly as a control? Hard for the researchers to tell if the babies’ parents have already taught them the words associated with the presented objects.
- donw 5y ago
  Sounds fishy… Digging in, it looks like the author, Lisa Feldman Barrett, is part of the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) cult. Hell no. Glad I checked.
  - rmbyrro 5y ago
    Never heard of SEL before. A quick read on Wikipedia [1] rendered a good first impression. What do you find so wrong with it and what makes you classify it as a cult? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-emotional_learning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-emotional_learning
  - dang 5y ago
    "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. 'That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3' can be shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - drekk 5y ago
    Lisa Feldman Barrett was, from 2018-2020, one of the 1% most-cited scientists over a ten year period. Her work in the cultural construction of emotions is taught widely to psychology and neuroscience undergrads and to dismiss it as a "cult" is doing a great disservice. If you think emotions are "elemental" or "primal" you can certainly try to make that argument with data. From what I gathered in my neuroscience undergrad emotions are not universal and the way we express them is cultural. Also has precious little to do with the topic at hand, which is the ability for language to facilitate working memory processes. Something not unique to this paper from nearly two decades ago. Check Google Scholar for the keywords working memory and psycholinguistics if you're interested in the topic. Other examples of how language alter our thinking is in gendered languages, where our descriptions of objects is impacted by our native tongue even if we're speaking in a neuter language like Hungarian.
    - donw 5y ago
      > Lisa Feldman Barrett was, from 2018-2020, one of the 1% most-cited scientists over a ten year period. Irrelevant.
rmbyrro 5y ago
Sci-Hub link: https://sci-hub.wf/10.1073/pnas.0709884105 https://sci-hub.wf/10.1073/pnas.0709884105

59 points by rzk 5y ago

rzk 5y ago

TL;DR[0]: If you hide toys while a baby watches, they can remember up to 3 hiding places. But if you name the toys aloud with nonsense words ("dax," "blicket") before hiding them, babies can remember up to 6 hiding places. Even if all the toys look identical. [0] https://twitter.com/LFeldmanBarrett/status/1493357558823849988 https://twitter.com/LFeldmanBarrett/status/14933575588238499...

kgwxd 5y ago
Why nonsense words? Aren't all words nonsense words to babies?
- zanderwohl 5y ago
  I think that's the idea. It's showing that they don't need to tie the toy to an existing word they may have heard from a parent, babies acquire language quickly enough most of the time to assign a new word to a concept instantly.
  - donw 5y ago
    That makes no sense.
    - germinalphrase 5y ago
      Why not? The child has no prior word referent but is able to quickly establish one which allows them to track a larger number of hidden objects.
- batman-farts 5y ago
  Possibly as a control? Hard for the researchers to tell if the babies’ parents have already taught them the words associated with the presented objects.
donw 5y ago
Sounds fishy… Digging in, it looks like the author, Lisa Feldman Barrett, is part of the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) cult. Hell no. Glad I checked.
- rmbyrro 5y ago
  Never heard of SEL before. A quick read on Wikipedia [1] rendered a good first impression. What do you find so wrong with it and what makes you classify it as a cult? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-emotional_learning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-emotional_learning
- dang 5y ago
  "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. 'That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3' can be shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- drekk 5y ago
  Lisa Feldman Barrett was, from 2018-2020, one of the 1% most-cited scientists over a ten year period. Her work in the cultural construction of emotions is taught widely to psychology and neuroscience undergrads and to dismiss it as a "cult" is doing a great disservice. If you think emotions are "elemental" or "primal" you can certainly try to make that argument with data. From what I gathered in my neuroscience undergrad emotions are not universal and the way we express them is cultural. Also has precious little to do with the topic at hand, which is the ability for language to facilitate working memory processes. Something not unique to this paper from nearly two decades ago. Check Google Scholar for the keywords working memory and psycholinguistics if you're interested in the topic. Other examples of how language alter our thinking is in gendered languages, where our descriptions of objects is impacted by our native tongue even if we're speaking in a neuter language like Hungarian.
  - donw 5y ago
    > Lisa Feldman Barrett was, from 2018-2020, one of the 1% most-cited scientists over a ten year period. Irrelevant.

rmbyrro 5y ago

Sci-Hub link: https://sci-hub.wf/10.1073/pnas.0709884105 https://sci-hub.wf/10.1073/pnas.0709884105