Calendar of events
Language and Learning Seminar: Dr. Gregor Kachel Leuphana, University of Lüneburg
Location: Microsoft Teams - Message Ying Guo for Link
Title: Symbolic literacy: Young children’s developing understanding of the relation between symbol and referent in the graphic domain
Abstract: Children’s developing understanding of symbols in language, gesture or symbolic artefacts is central to their enculturation and demonstrates the growth of cognitive capacities that define the human mind. Language acquisition and – much later - literacy are arguably two of the most significant achievements in cultural learning. However, even prior to formal education, children may be highly competent in the graphic domain.
In a multi-study project, children were presented with a picture-book-style symbolic object-choice-task in a cross-sectional between-subjects-design. At test, they received various graphic cues by a helpful and knowledgeable cartoon agent directing them at one of two choice options over 16 trials without feedback. Participants’ binary choices were modeled as a function of their absolute age using logistic Bayesian GLMMs to determine when group performance exceeds chance. Whereas previous work on graphic communication has focused almost exclusively on iconicity as a way of creating meaning, and compared performance across binned age-groups, this project investigates a wide variety of mapping relationships and allows for a continuous modelling of development across the preschool years in a highly simple, coherent and comprehensive paradigm.
A first set of studies tested when children comprehend reference based in iconicity, pars-pro-toto, and analogies in shape (S1; N = 106), orientation and position (S2; N = 99) as well as number and size (S3, N = 99). To understand the interplay of cognitive abilities and enculturation, study 4 (N = 224, 48 to 60 months) combined the most reliable items from studies 1-3 with tasks evaluating children’s knowledge of conventional symbols, vocabulary and pragmatic abilities. An additional set of studies was devoted to when children understand arrows and markers (study 5; N = 72). Study 6 (N = 96) explored the interplay of direction and proximity in ambiguous arrow cues and study 7 (N = 48) established when children are able to generalize an arrow-like reading to novel directional cues. Together with an additional investigation of children’s ability to interpret movement in graphic representations (study 8, N = 96), this project provides one of the most comprehensive and coherent investigations of young children’s understanding of symbols in the graphic domain to date.
Gregor Kachel, (PhD)
@gregork.bsky.social // https://gregorkachel.github.io/Link opens in a new window
Bio:
I am a developmental and pedagogical psychologist focusing largely on the development of gestural and graphical communication in early childhood and throughout the preschool years. I started out as a student of philosophy and English Studies but added psychology as a double degree as I got fascinated with developmental and behavioral research, before doing my PhD with Michael Tomasello at the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig. The studies I’ll presenting are part of my first grant, a DFG funded project on the young children’s understanding of graphic communication prior to literacy. I am currently employed as a post-doc at the chair of Developmental Psychology at the Leuphana University, Lüneburg, with Manuel Bohn.