Predictors of early person reference development: Maternal language input, attachment and neurodevelopmental markers
Introduction
Mental representations are cognitive entities that allow humans to operate integrative concepts of the self, significant others and abstract social constellations. A theoretical framework for mental representations of persons conjectured that usage of verbal referents for persons enables social-cognitive functioning, along with reflection about mental states (Lemche, 2003). The formation of mental representations for persons is conceived to originate in early mother–child interaction, but to become gradually encoded by language symbols (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992, Tarabulsy et al., 1996). It is hereby assumed that situational models of interactions with other persons provide the basis of cognitive person representations (Radvansky & Copland, 2000). Symbolic person references later become part of the reflective function of person representations, which has been shown to be a prerequisite of perspective-taking abilities in children (Adrian et al., 2005, Lubinski and Thompson, 1993).
Investigations of person referent uses were already contained in the earliest accounts of psychological development. Darwin (1877), Preyer (1882), and Baldwin (1895) all made unsystematic observations of their own children, and described the uses of person symbols in their infants. Darwin noted the equivalence of a feeding request toward a wet nurse with the use of mum at nine months of age (Darwin, 1877, p. 293). Because of the assumption of the onset of consciousness with self-pronoun use in psychological theorizing of the time, this particular achievement became of specific interest to both Preyer (1882, p. 377) and Baldwin. The observation of a parallel use of self and other-denotation led Baldwin then to his well-known conclusion “the Ego and the Alter are thus born together” (Baldwin, 1895, p. 321).
This issue, namely whether children develop symbolic referents for significant others or themselves first, was also at the core interest of most subsequent linguistic single-case or multiple case studies (Bain, 1936, Budwig, 1985, Budwig and Wiley, 1995, Cooley, 1908). Surprisingly little quantified research was hitherto undertaken on person reference by nouns and pronouns in early childhood development. Experimental investigations into the uses of self- and other-person reference (Deutsch, Wagner, & Masche, 1994) indicated that early self-reference is present from 17 months onward. Other-person reference appeared to be more advanced at 17 months of age, whereas self-reference at this early stage was rather infrequent and solely based on nouns (Wagner, Burchard, Deutsch, Jahn, & Nakath, 1996). Several multiple case studies suggest that children must learn a reversal of pronouns from parents in the case of first person and second person input before they can themselves produce these pronominal forms (Oshima-Takane et al., 1999, Smiley et al., 2011).
Recent quantified studies also focused on pre-linguistic precursors relevant to the development of person referents. It appears that communication of caregiver absence (12–16 months) (Saylor, 2004, Saylor and Baldwin, 2004), thing absence (14–18 months) (Gräfenhain, Behne, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2009) and references to toys mentioned in preceding conversations (15–18 months) (Ganea & Saylor, 2007) could be related to presumed underlying advances in long-term memory during this span (Gopnik & Meltzoff, 1984). We now turn to presentations of attachment, and the overall study rationale.
Attachment in humans is considered the evolutionary equivalent to filial imprinting in higher vertebrates (Lemche et al., 2006). The construct implicates that exclusive relationships with the primary caregivers are elaborated from early bonding onwards, and maintained throughout the lifespan once stable attachment organizations have emerged at the end of the first year of life. Attachment quality can then be experimentally assessed in terms of secure, insecure or disorganized main classifications. The assumption of a representational nature of the attachment relation (in terms of Internal Working Models) (Bretherton, 1997) between child and caregiver gives rise to the expectation that cognitive concepts of persons and their verbal symbols should be predictable by attachment qualities. To our knowledge, this expectation has never previously been tested.
Previous studies (Huttenlocher, 1998, Huttenlocher et al., 1991) support the assumption of a close relationship of maternal word input and children's usage of words, both in non-specific verbosity, as well as for the acquisition of specific word classes. We therefore expected a similar close relation between referent uses of mothers and children. Neurodevelopmental variables are measures that are conceived to reflect the maturity status of the nervous system in children. The perinatal Apgar test, which also comprises activity, muscle tone, reflexes and grimacing, is an index of neurological functioning and risk. Although language development is generally regarded to be subserved by cortical modules, no studies yet attempted to predict language acquisition from the maturity of the central nervous system at birth. Further neurodevelopmental maturity markers are e.g. body length and weight at the time of birth. Upright locomotion onset can also be seen as reflecting the state of central nervous system growth. Developmental researchers also generally assume a certain relation of upright locomotion with first language utterances or attachment organization. Finally, certain familial circumstances, such as single mothering or staying at home may influence reference uses.
Three main hypotheses were thus envisioned, (i) that attachment security fosters referential capacities and (ii) that maternal reference input determines referent use of children. We also assumed (iii) longitudinal effects of neurodevelopmental maturity indices and familial variables. To test the magnitude of the respective influences, computation of relative variance explanation by predictor variables was planned.
Section snippets
Overall strategy
Dialogic situations are the experimental situation of choice in the study of referent uses in spoken language (Knutsen & LeBigot, 2012). In the present study, children's (and also mothers’) verbal references from spoken discourse were recorded, which included both nouns and pronouns pertaining to the own person, mother present, mother absent, other persons, objects, and the dyadic community from transcripts of observed mother–toddler play situations. To provide a challenge to the children's
Attachment and word frequencies
Effects of attachment security (vs. insecurity) became evident only at the 17-month time point for overall syllable production (i.e. utterance units): maternal word input (F1,37 = 4.23, p < 0.048) and child word output (F1,37 = 6.14, p < 0.018). No effects of attachment organization were detected for overall word production at any of the later time points.
The referent counts for securely and insecurely attached children relative to the different average referent counts at each time points are plotted
Discussion
Differential influences from attachment and maternal referent input to variables that index mental representations were the focus of this investigation. Multiple regression analyses reveal that the effects of attachment security are largest in children's uses of self-referents, references to mother presence, and references to mother absence (hypothesis (i)). Self, mother present, and mother absent reference are the most theoretically interesting person referents, because response to separation
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflict of interest regarding this article.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the German Research Community (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), Köhler Foundation (German Donors Association, Stifterverband) to the senior author, and intramural funding from the Dresden University of Technology Medical School to the first and second authors. Writing of this manuscript was covered by a postdoctoral research fellowship of the Köhler Foundation granted to the first author.
References (42)
- et al.
One-year-olds’ understanding of nonverbal gestures directed to a third person
Cognitive Development
(2009) Language input and language growth
Preventive Medicine
(1998)- et al.
Managing dialogue: How information availability affects collaborative reference production
Journal of Memory and Language
(2012) Linguistic biases and the establishment of conceptual hierarchies
Cognitive Development
(1990)- et al.
Parent–child picture-book reading, mothers’ mental state language, and children's theory of mind
Journal of Child Language
(2005) - et al.
Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions
(1991) - et al.
Attachment and exploratory behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation
The self- and other-words of a child
The American Journal of Sociology
(1936)Mental development in the child and the race
(1895)Manual for the Bayley Scales of infant development
(1969)
Bowlby's legacy to developmental psychology
Child Psychiatry and Human Development
I, me, my and ‘name’: Children's early systematizations of forms, meanings, and functions in talk about the self
Papers and Reports on Child Language Development
What language reveals about children's categories of personhood
New Directions in Child Development
A study of the early use of self-words by a child
Psychological Review
A biographical sketch of an infant
Mind
From noun to pronoun: An experimental investigation of person reference in German children during their second through fourth years of life
Sprache & Kognition
Attentional states and lexical development at 18 months
Developmental Psychology
HIAT: A transcription system for discourse data
Infants’ use of shared information to clarify ambiguous requests
Child Development
Semantic and cognititve development in 15- to 21-month-old children
Journal of Child Language
How should frequency in input be measured?
First Language
Cited by (3)
The First 20,000 Strange Situation Procedures: A Meta-Analytic Review
2023, Psychological BulletinReferences to Mental States in Mother–Child Conversation in the Second Year of Life
2016, Journal of Child and Family Studies