Using spatial representations in gesture to facilitate early word learning: A priming process model

As children learn to speak, they also gesture; previous empirical work has suggested that there is a direct link between the two. In this paper, we propose a priming process model that uses gesture to facilitate language. Our model uses the ACT-R/E cognitive architecture and uses a combination of repetition naming and priming from gesture spatial representations to increase the probability that a word will be remembered. Our model simulates 11 months of learning and runs on an embodied platform.