An increasing body of research has demonstrated that human learners are able to use co-occurrences among wordsand objects to form word-object associations (e.g., Yu & Smith, 2007). In this study, we further investigated learners’ ability touse statistical information to learn labels at different hierarchical levels. Participants were presented with objects and words inambiguous learning trials. In some learning trials, participants saw multiple objects and heard their individual labels presentedin a random order, while in other trials, category labels were presented instead. Results from three experiments providedconverging evidence that adults were able to use word-object co-occurrences across different situations to learn hierarchicallabels. Moreover, participants generalized category labels to novel members at the same level but not to superordinate-levelinstances. There was also an interaction between the level of ambiguity in learning contexts and performance in label learningand generalization.

The present study investigates whether, and if so in what way, adult learners are sensitive to the properties ofthe statistical input, such as frequency and skewedness, when learning and generalizing category labels. Participants werepresented with novel objects belonging to four different categories and heard category labels in a cross-situational learningtask. The four categories were matched for the total amount of exposure but varied in category size and shape of distribution.Participants learned object-to-label mappings better for categories with a skewed distribution of fewer objects. Moreover,object-to-label mapping performance was positively related to the ability to extend category knowledge to novel items. Co-occurrence frequency or category size alone were not good predictors of label learning and generalization. The results indicatethe importance of input distribution in word and category learning processes.

The ability to predict others actions is fundamental to successful joint action, communication, and theory of mind. Re-search has shown that infants predict other peoples actions across a variety of laboratory tasks. However, it is unknownwhether the action prediction skills that infants demonstrate during screen-based eye-tracking tasks scale up to real-lifeaction contexts, and whether they relate to general learning abilities. To address these questions, we used head-mountedeye-tracking to investigate action prediction and visual sequence learning during live parent-child interactions. Findingsreveal that 18-month-old infants predict reaching actions during the majority of trials, and that their gaze latencies becomefaster as they learn 3-step action sequences. These findings demonstrate that infants can learn sequence regularities andanticipate the actions of other people in live, naturalistic contexts, as they have been shown to do in traditional laboratorycontexts. This research contributes new insight into early cognitive and social development.

Developmental theory considers action prediction as one of several processes involved in determining how infants come to perceive and understand social events (Gredebäck & Daum, 2015). Action prediction is observed from early in life and is considered an important social-cognitive skill. However, knowledge about infant action prediction is limited to evidence from screen-based eye-tracking tasks. Little is known about action prediction in real-life action contexts. Our aim in the current study was to provide new evidence on whether and how infants anticipate actions in free-flowing parent-child interaction. Using dual head-mounted eye- tracking, we analyzed infants’ visual anticipations of their parents’ reaching actions while they played with objects together. Findings reveal that infants anticipate their parents’ actions at a rate higher than would be expected by chance.

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the link between low fasting blood glucose levels and all-cause mortality and cardiovascular outcomes among people without baseline diabetes or cardiovascular disease. DESIGN:Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES:PubMed and Embase (1966-February 2019). SELECTION CRITERIA:Prospective cohort studies were included for meta-analysis if they reported adjusted HRs with 95% CIs for associations between risk of all-cause mortality, stroke, major cardiovascular events, coronary heart disease and low fasting glucose levels (<4.6 mmol/L and/or 4.0 mmol/L, respectively) versus normal fasting glucose levels. DATA EXTRACTION AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:Two independent reviewers extracted data from eligible studies. Heterogeneity was assessed by p value of χ2 tests and I2. We assessed four characteristics for each included study based on items developed by the US Preventive Task Force, as well as the modified checklist used in previous studies. RESULTS:Eleven articles (consisting of 129 prospective cohort studies) with 2 674 882 participants without diabetes and cardiovascular disease at baseline were included in this meta-analysis. Pooled results from the random effects model showed increased risks of all-cause mortality (HR: 1.56; 95% CI 1.09 to 2.23), total stroke (HR: 1.08, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.13) and ischaemic stroke (HR: 1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.10), and major cardiovascular events (HR: 1.05, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.07) among people with a fasting glucose <4.0 mmol/L, as compared with people with normal fasting glucose. The less stringent low fasting glucose level, <4.6 mmol/L, was not associated with increased risk of any endpoints. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:Among people without baseline diabetes or cardiovascular disease, a fasting blood glucose level of <4.0 mmol/L is associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality, major cardiovascular events and stroke.

Young children's visual environments are dynamic, changing moment-by-moment as children physically and visually explore spaces and objects and interact with people around them. Head-mounted eye tracking offers a unique opportunity to capture children's dynamic egocentric views and how they allocate visual attention within those views. This protocol provides guiding principles and practical recommendations for researchers using head-mounted eye trackers in both laboratory and more naturalistic settings. Head-mounted eye tracking complements other experimental methods by enhancing opportunities for data collection in more ecologically valid contexts through increased portability and freedom of head and body movements compared to screen-based eye tracking. This protocol can also be integrated with other technologies, such as motion tracking and heart-rate monitoring, to provide a high-density multimodal dataset for examining natural behavior, learning, and development than previously possible. This paper illustrates the types of data generated from head-mounted eye tracking in a study designed to investigate visual attention in one natural context for toddlers: free-flowing toy play with a parent. Successful use of this protocol will allow researchers to collect data that can be used to answer questions not only about visual attention, but also about a broad range of other perceptual, cognitive, and social skills and their development.