THE IMPACT OF NAPS ON WORD LEARNING AND INTEGRATION IN FOUR-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

Abstract

This study aims to discover the effect that sleeping patterns have on word learning and integration in children ages 48-59 months (4-5 years). Although prior literature has highlighted the importance of sleep in this field, it has yet to focus on sleep's contribution to one's ability to form an inference that has not been explicitly taught yet. Therefore, to test this question, children ages 4-5 will be presented with a novel object with its function and label separately - then tested on their ability to form an association between the two attributes of function and label without being directly taught it. The study consists of habitual nappers, those who nap a minimum of 30 minutes for at least 4 days a week, and non-habitual nappers, those who nap less than 4 days a week or not at all. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: habitual nappers who nap 4 or more days/week in nap and wakefulness conditions, nonhabitual nappers who nap 3 or fewer days/week in a wakefulness condition, and a group tested after a 5-minute delay with equal numbers of habitual and nonhabitual nappers.