Barbara Pomiechowska | publications

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preprints

Eye tracking
Combinatorial thought in infancy. Language processing reveals conceptual combination

preprints

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The unparalleled productivity of the human mind rests on our ability to combine a finite set of simple representations into an infinity of complex thoughts, a process often implemented in language. To investigate the developmental origins of combinatorial thought, we tested whether infants combine concepts linked to words they have just acquired. Across three eye-tracking experiments, 12-month-olds (N = 60) learned two novel quantity labels (e.g., “mize” for 1; “padu” for 2 items), and combined them with familiar nouns (e.g., “duck”) to identify referents of quantified noun phrases (e.g., “padu duck”) in an adult-like manner. Thus, combinatorial processes for setting up complex representations are available already in infancy and may support building complex models of experience for learning and language development.
@article{pomiechowskaetal2022preprint, abbr = {Eye tracking}, bibtex_show = {false}, title = {Combinatorial thought in infancy. Language processing reveals conceptual combination}, author = {}, year = {preprints}, publisher = {PsyArXiv}, pdf = {https://psyarxiv.com/hekp5/}, code = {https://osf.io/cnez5/}, data = {https://osf.io/cnez5/}, materials = {https://osf.io/cnez5/} }

2022

Eye tracking
Nonverbal action interpretation guides novel word disambiguation in 12-month-olds

Pomiechowska, B., and Csibra, G.

Open Mind 2022

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Whether young infants can exploit socio-pragmatic information to interpret new words is a matter of debate. Based on findings and theories from the action interpretation literature, we hypothesized that 12-month-olds should distinguish communicative object-directed actions expressing reference from instrumental object-directed actions indicative of one’s goals, and selectively use the former to identify referents of novel linguistic expressions. This hypothesis was tested across four eye-tracking experiments. Infants watched pairs of unfamiliar objects, one of which was first targeted by either a communicative action (e.g., pointing) or an instrumental action (e.g., grasping) and then labeled with a novel word. As predicted, infants fast-mapped the novel words onto the targeted objects after pointing (Experiments 1 and 4) but not after grasping (Experiment 2) unless the grasping action was preceded by an ostensive signal (Experiment 3). Moreover, whenever infants mapped a novel word onto the object indicated by a communicative action, they tended to map a different novel word onto the distractor object, displaying a mutual exclusivity effect. This reliance on nonverbal action interpretation in the disambiguation of novel words indicates that socio-pragmatic inferences about reference likely supplement associative and statistical learning mechanisms from the outset of word learning.
@article{pomiechowskacsibra2022nonverbal, abbr = {Eye tracking}, bibtex_show = {true}, title = {Nonverbal action interpretation guides novel word disambiguation in 12-month-olds}, author = {Pomiechowska, B. and Csibra, G.}, year = {2022}, journal = {Open Mind}, publisher = {PsyArXiv}, pdf = {https://direct.mit.edu/opmi/article/doi/10.1162/opmi_a_00055/111215/Nonverbal-Action-Interpretation-Guides-Novel-Word}, code = {https://github.com/bpomie/point}, materials = {}, data = {https://github.com/bpomie/point/tree/master/data} }
VoE looking time
Ten-month-olds infer relative costs of different goal-directed actions

Pomiechowska, Barbara, and Csibra, Gergely

In CogSci 2022

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Determining others’ motor competence is critical for action prediction and social decision making. One aspect of competence judgements involves assessing how costly a given action is for a particular agent (e.g., whether climbing 4 floors of stairs is a piece of cake or a tough physical exercise). Such information is not given away by the agents’ physical appearance but can be inferred based on their behavior. Across two looking-time experiments, we show that 10-month-olds can infer and compare agent-specific costs of different actions. After being familiarized with agent A jumping over low obstacles and walking around high obstacles, and agent B jumping over both low and high obstacles, infants worked out that for B jumping bears little cost, while for A jumping high is more costly than detouring the obstacles by walking. Furthermore, they used this motor competence judgements to predict both agents’ actions in a new environment. These findings suggest that basic building blocks competence evaluations are available in infancy and may be rooted in infants’ action interpretation skills.
@inproceedings{pomiechowskacsibra2022ten, abbr = {VoE looking time}, bibtex_show = {true}, title = {Ten-month-olds infer relative costs of different goal-directed actions}, author = {Pomiechowska, Barbara and Csibra, Gergely}, booktitle = {CogSci}, year = {2022}, pdf = {https://escholarship.org/uc/item/78d7b57d} }
Behavioral
Children, but not adults, prioritize relational over dispositional interpretations of dominance interactions

In CogSci 2022

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Humans routinely monitor social interactions to learn about the relational make-up of their groups and select social partners. It is unclear however whether social interactions primarily invite inferences about the dispositions of the participants involved or about underlying social relations. In the present study we tested which of these two inferences children and adults draw when observing interactions based on dominance. Children expected dominants to prevail over previous subordinates but did not generalize this expectation to interactions with novel agents, whereas adults did. These results suggest that children interpreted dominance as specific to a particular social relation, whereas adults interpreted it as a stable, target-invariant trait. This asymmetry supports the proposal that children may first interpret social interactions through a relational stance, and only later in development apprehend them through the lenses of trait attribution.
@inproceedings{pomiechowskaetal2022childre, abbr = {Behavioral}, bibtex_show = {true}, title = {Children, but not adults, prioritize relational over dispositional interpretations of dominance interactions}, author = {}, booktitle = {CogSci}, year = {2022}, pdf = {https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8128m2vg} }

2021

E E G
Nonverbal category knowledge limits the amount of information encoded in object representations. EEG evidence from 12-month-old infants

Pomiechowska, B., and Gliga, T.

Royal Society Open Science 2021

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To what extent does language shape how we think about the world? Studies suggest that linguistic symbols expressing conceptual categories (‘apple’, ‘squirrel’) make us focus on categorical information (e.g. that you saw a squirrel) and disregard individual information (e.g. whether that squirrel had a long or short tail). Across two experiments with preverbal infants, we demonstrated that it is not language but nonverbal category knowledge that determines what information is packed into object representations. Twelve-month-olds (N = 48) participated in an electroencephalography (EEG) change-detection task involving objects undergoing a brief occlusion. When viewing objects from unfamiliar categories, infants detected both across- and within-category changes, as evidenced by their negative central wave (Nc) event-related potential. Conversely, when viewing objects from familiar categories, they did not respond to within-category changes, which indicates that nonverbal category knowledge interfered with the representation of individual surface features necessary to detect such changes. Furthermore, distinct patterns of γ and α oscillations between familiar and unfamiliar categories were evident before and during occlusion, suggesting that categorization had an influence on the format of recruited object representations. Thus, we show that nonverbal category knowledge has rapid and enduring effects on object representation and discuss their functional significance for generic knowledge acquisition in the absence of language.
@article{pomiechowska2021nonverbal, abbr = {E E G}, bibtex_show = {true}, title = {Nonverbal category knowledge limits the amount of information encoded in object representations. EEG evidence from 12-month-old infants}, author = {Pomiechowska, B. and Gliga, T.}, journal = {Royal Society Open Science}, volume = {8}, number = {3}, pages = {200782}, year = {2021}, selected = {true}, code = {https://github.com/bpomie/remember}, materials = {https://osf.io/b36cg/}, data = {}, pdf = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.200782}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200782}, publisher = {The Royal Society,}, supp = {} }
Eye tracking
Twelve-month-olds disambiguate new words using mutual-exclusivity inferences

Pomiechowska, Barbara, Bródy, Gábor, Csibra, Gergely, and Gliga, Teodora

Cognition 2021

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Representing objects in terms of their kinds enables inferences based on the long-term knowledge made available through kind concepts. For example, children readily use lexical knowledge linked to familiar kind concepts to disambiguate new words (e.g., “find the toma”): they exclude members of familiar kinds falling under familiar kind labels (e.g., a ball) as potential referents and link new labels to available unfamiliar objects (e.g., a funnel), a phenomenon dubbed as ‘mutual exclusivity’. Younger infants’ failure in mutual exclusivity tasks has been commonly interpreted as a limitation of early word-learning or inferential abilities. Here, we investigated an alternative explanation, according to which infants do not spontaneously represent familiar objects under kind concepts, hence lacking access to the information necessary for rejecting them as referents of novel labels. Building on findings about conceptual development and communication, we hypothesized that nonverbal communication could prompt infants to set up kind-based representations which, in turn, would promote mutual exclusivity inferences. This hypothesis was tested in a looking-while-listening task involving novel word disambiguation. Twelve-month-olds saw pairs of objects, one familiar and one unfamiliar, and heard familiar kind labels or novel words. Across two experiments providing a cross-lab replication in two different languages, infants successfully disambiguated novel words when the familiar object had been pointed at before labeling, but not when it had been highlighted in a non-communicative manner (Experiment 1) or not highlighted at all (Experiment 2). Nonverbal communication induced infants to recruit kind-based representations of familiar objects that they failed to recruit in its absence and that, once activated, supported mutual-exclusivity inferences. Developmental changes in children’s appreciation of communicative contexts may modulate the expression of early inferential and word learning competences.
@article{pomiechowska2021twelve, abbr = {Eye tracking}, bibtex_show = {true}, title = {Twelve-month-olds disambiguate new words using mutual-exclusivity inferences}, author = {Pomiechowska, Barbara and Br{\'o}dy, G{\'a}bor and Csibra, Gergely and Gliga, Teodora}, journal = {Cognition}, pages = {104691}, year = {2021}, publisher = {Elsevier}, selected = {true}, code = {https://github.com/bpomie/mutex}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027721001104}, pdf = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/reader/pii/S0010027721001104/pdf}, materials = {}, data = {https://github.com/bpomie/point/tree/master/data}, supp = {https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0010027721001104-mmc1.pdf} }

2020

VoE looking time

Ten-month-olds infer relative costs of different goal-directed actions

Pomiechowska, Barbara, and Csibra, Gergely

In CogSci 2020

Bib PDF

@inproceedings{pomiechowska2020ten,
  abbr = {VoE looking time},
  bibtex_show = {true},
  title = {Ten-month-olds infer relative costs of different goal-directed actions},
  author = {Pomiechowska, Barbara and Csibra, Gergely},
  booktitle = {CogSci},
  year = {2020},
  pdf = {}
}

VoE looking time
Do Infants Think That Agents Choose What’s Best?

Schlingloff, Laura, Tatone, Denis, Pomiechowska, Barbara, and Csibra, Gergely

In CogSci 2020

Bib PDF
@inproceedings{schlingloff2020infants, abbr = {VoE looking time}, bibtex_show = {true}, title = {Do Infants Think That Agents Choose What's Best?}, author = {Schlingloff, Laura and Tatone, Denis and Pomiechowska, Barbara and Csibra, Gergely}, booktitle = {CogSci}, year = {2020}, pdf = {} }

2019

Eye tracking

Lexical acquisition through category matching. 12-month-old infants associate words to visual categories

Psychological science 2019

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Behavioral

Rationality in joint action. maximizing coefficiency in coordination

Török, Georgina, Pomiechowska, Barbara, Csibra, Gergely, and Sebanz, Natalie

Psychological science 2019

2017

E E G

Motor activation during action perception depends on action interpretation

Pomiechowska, Barbara, and Csibra, Gergely

Neuropsychologia 2017

2016

Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages. Is there a cross-linguistic order of words?

Łuniewska, Magdalena, Haman, Ewa, Armon-Lotem, Sharon, Etenkowski, Bartłomiej, Southwood, Frenette, An\djelković, Darinka, Blom, Elma, Boerma, Tessel, Chiat, Shula, Abreu, Pascale Engel, and others,

Behavior research methods 2016

2015

8. Designing Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLTs) for Bilingual Preschool Children

Haman, Ewa, Łuniewska, Magdalena, and Pomiechowska, Barbara

2015