Every child went through one learning and one memory experiment each consisting of six different video trials depicting six different action scenes. The trials were presented in one of two random orders, balanced across conditions. In addition, the order was balanced over the experiments, i.e., children presented with order A for learning were presented with order B for memory and vice versa. The left-right position of the familiar and novel test scene was counterbalanced across trials.
Children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In one condition children were learning novel verbs while the presented actions involved actors with neutral facial expressions (verb neutral condition). In the second condition children were learning verbs while watching actors posing negative facial expressions (verb negative condition). In the control condition children were not learning any verb while watching actions that involved actors with neutral facial expressions (no word condition). In all conditions children were presented with the exact same action scenes. The only varying input across conditions were the auditory stimuli as well as the emotional facial expressions of the involved actors.
7.1.3.1 Learning experiment
Each trial of the learning experiment was divided into a familiarization, contrast, and test phase;
exemplarily illustrated for one trial in Table 7-3. To capture children’s attention every trial started with a short video sequence (4 sec) showing a colorful locomotive driving.
(a) Familiarization (26 sec)
During familiarization children were presented with four consecutive examples of an action event alternately shown on the left or right side of the screen. The left-right presentation was counterbalanced across all six trials. In each of the four event examples the same animate actor (e.g. a man) was performing the same action (e.g. waving) on four different inanimate objects of the same category (e.g., round blue balloon, heart-shaped red balloon, etc.). The auditory information accompanying the event sequences varied depending on the condition (e.g. Look, the man is telping a balloon! [verb]; Look what’s happening here! [no word]).
(b) Contrast phase (14 sec)
In the following contrast phase two scenes were presented to the child consecutively in the center of the screen. First, the same actor (e.g. the man) was enacting a novel action with a novel object (e.g. the man lifted a hat on head) accompanied by auditory information that varied by condition (e.g. Oh, the man is not telping here! [verb]; Oh, look at that! [no word]). Afterwards, the children were presented again with the same actor and the familiarized action (e.g. waving the balloon) while listening to a sentence that varied by condition (e.g. Ah, the man is telping here! [verb]; Ah, look! [no word]).
(c) Test phase (12 sec)
In the test phase two action scenes were presented simultaneously side by side on the screen. Both action scenes presented the same actor and object4, but differed in the kind of action. That is, one scene displayed the actor performing the familiarized action (e.g. waving the balloon), whereas the
4 The object was one of the four introduced objects of the familiarization phase.
other featured the actor performing a novel action (e.g. tapping the balloon). The test phase was divided into a baseline period (4 sec) and a following response period (8 sec) separated by a blank screen (520 ms) and a ringing sound. Both were accompanied by different auditory information:
During baseline children of all groups were listening to the same auditory information, e.g. Look at this!, but during response they were presented with different information that varied by condition, i.e., children in the verb condition were asked to recognize the scene corresponding to the familiarized verb (e.g. Where is the man telping the balloon?), whereas children in the no word condition listened to a sentence containing no novel verb (e.g. What do you see there?).5 See Appendix C for a full description of the temporal structure of each trial in the learning experiment.
Tab. 7-3: Study 1. Example of one trial presented in the learning experiment
Familiarization Contrast Test
Each trial of the memory experiment included the attention getter, a short reminder, and a test phase (exemplarily depicted by one trial in Table 7-4). After showing the locomotive (4 sec) to capture children’s attention, the screen went blank and a reminder question was presented (3.5 sec),
5 A critical review of the effects that might have been elicited by the question presented in the no word condition will be given in Chapter 7.3.1.1. Since the design was adopted from Waxman et al. (2009) and due to issues of comparability, the question was translated as close as possible to the question presented in English.
e.g. Do you still remember? The man is telping a balloon. The aim of this question was to provide children with the opportunity to recall the learned verbs before they were requested to match the auditory information with the visual one. Subsequently, the test phase started, which was identically designed to the one of the learning experiment.
Tab. 7-4: Study 1. Example of one trial presented in the memory experiment
Question Test
Weißt du noch? Der Mann telpt einen Ballon!
Do you still remember? The man is telping a balloon!
Guck mal da!
Look at this! Wo telpt der Mann den Ballon?
Where is the man telping the balloon?
no word condition:
Weißt du noch? Du hast etwas geseh‘n!
Do you still remember? You saw something.
Children and adults were welcomed in the anteroom. While the child was playing, adults were introduced to the procedure of the upcoming experiment. Subsequently, children and adults were guided to the test room where the child was seated on the caretaker’s lap. Children who were tested by presenting the videos on a flat-TV were placed 160 cm and the ones tested by eye-tracking were seated 60 cm away from the screen. The caretaker was reminded not to talk or to interact with the child. Subsequently, the experimenter started the video from an adjacent room observing caretaker and child via a monitoring screen during testing.
Throughout the experimental procedure children’s looking behavior was recorded for later analysis. In the experiments using the flat-TV, children’s looks were recorded (for offline coding)