Vol. 17, No. 14	Dec. 11, 1997

Three projects

 Researcher studies complexities of thought

"In all of my studies, we want to know, 'What do we know about space, how do we talk about it, and how do children learn to do so?'" Landau explained.

Her newest project, for example, focuses on individuals with Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder resulting from a deletion on chromosome seven, which causes a profound spatial deficit similar to severe right-hemisphere brain damage. Initial support for the project was provided by a general University research grant, and additional grants are now pending.

The Williams Syndrome project was launched "to gain insights into the architecture of the mind and to learn how this architecture is affected by the disorder, specifically in our capacities for language and spatial knowledge," Landau said.

Williams Syndrome affects approximately one in 20,000 to 25,000 people, Landau noted. Individuals with the disorder tend to be classified as having moderate levels of mental retardation, she said, yet they possess excellent language skills-despite problems with spatial representation.

Landau said she hopes to study 10 children and 10 adults with Williams Syndrome, as well as a comparable number of "control" individuals. The project should help determine "what retardation really means," she said. Until recently, she said, many adults with this condition were simply described as retarded.

"Calling these individuals 'retarded' and putting them in classes for retarded children is very misleading," she explained. "To help them live productive, happy lives, we need to stop lumping them into broad categories and begin to understand the exact nature of their disorder. Then perhaps we can help them organize their world and learn more effectively, by emphasizing their strengths."

Landau's two other ongoing projects also focus on spatial representation, though not within special populations.

Through a Word Learning project, Landau and her assistants test toddlers' abilities to name various objects. Most children participating in this study are between the ages of 18 and 24 months, though Landau also studies 3- to 5-year-olds' knowledge of word meaning.

In collaboration with researchers at Indiana University, Landau shows nonsense toys to toddlers, to learn what assumptions they make about new objects.

"If I say, 'This is a riff,'" Landau said as she pointed to a large Pac-man shaped object, "and then put it aside and bring out some other toys with different sizes, shapes, colors and textures, children will extend their recognition of a riff to include any object with the same shape--regardless of whether it's the same color, texture or size. This is known as shape-bias."

Landau first coined the term "shape-bias," and presented the influential theory in her writings, in the late 1980s. Since then, she has shown that the shape-bias pattern begins when children are 2 years old and grows stronger with age.

More recently, Landau has refined the Word Learning project to investigate whether an object's function, in addition to its shape, may also affect the way people name it. Landau's studies have thus far shown that information about an object's function holds no importance for children, though it does for adults.

To test this theory, children were given a large Barbie-doll head and a comb, and they proceeded to comb the doll's hair. The children then received one object shaped like a comb but made from paper, and several objects that could function like a comb (such as a fork or a rake). Yet, Landau said, children invariably insisted that only the object shaped like a comb was actually a comb.

What does all this mean for parents eager to help children learn new words? "Our findings tell parents that kids are really prepared to learn language," she said. "Between the ages of 1.5 and 3 years, children's growth is astronomical. The answer is not that you frantically flash cards at them-they are biologically driven and preprogrammed with these biases for object naming."

Landau's third project, in collaboration with graduate students Ed Munnich and Mee Sook Kim, focuses on spatial representation. Munnich's cross-linguistic studies of spatial language involve comparisons of the spatial memory or "perception maps" of English, Japanese and Korean people, and how these are related to the similarities and differences in the spatial terms of these languages.

Munnich asks people with different native languages to give locations for objects, Landau explained. He also has them watch images on a screen and then tests their memory for location.

"If an object is touching the top of a box within a grid, we [native English speakers] would say it's on a box," Landau said. "If the object is over a box within the grid, we would say it's over or above the box. In Japanese, however, there is only one word to explain any portion of this region."

Such differences in spatial representation across languages may have enormous practical implications, Landau noted. For example, these differences may affect air traffic safety. If air traffic control and the pilots do not distinguish "on" and "above" in the same way, she said, crashes or near-crashes may become quite likely.

"If we could better understand how people translate spatial information in different languages, it might help us improve air traffic safety," she said.

Although each of Landau's three projects involves different individuals and varying topics, they all return to individuals' knowledge and perception of space and their relationship to language. "That's why we call this the Language and Cognition Laboratory," she quipped.

Landau's growing team of student researchers currently includes undergraduates Liz Decampli, Tim Simpson, Douglas Mauro de Lorenzo, Nicole Kurz and Emily Nagoski. Graduate student researchers working with Landau include Mee Sook Kim, Jerome Pagani and Ed Munnich. Andrea Zukowski, a graduate student at another institution, serves as a key member of the research team.

-Heather Miller
Photo by Simon Landau