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| Research article summary (published 30 Dec 2001): |
Object name learning provides on-the-job training for attention.
Full Abstract
By the age of 3, children easily learn to name new objects, extending new names for unfamiliar objects by similarity in shape. Two experiments tested the proposal that experience in learning object names tunes children's attention to the properties relevant for naming--in the present case, to the property of shape--and thus facilitates the learning of more object names. In Experiment 1, a 9-week longitudinal study, 17-month-old children who repeatedly played with and heard names for members of unfamiliar object categories well organized by shapeformed the generalization that only objects with ith similar shapes have the same name. Trained children also showed a dramatic increase in acquisition of new object names outside of the laboratory during the course of the study. Experiment 2 replicated these findings and showed that they depended on children's learning both a coherent category structure and object names. Thus, children who learn specific names for specific things in categories with a common organizing property--in this case, shape--also learn to attend to just the right property--in this case, shape--for learning more object names.
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Author information
Author/s: Smith, Linda B (LB); Jones, Susan S (SS); Landau, Barbara (B); Gershkoff-Stowe, Lisa (L); Samuelson, Larissa (L);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA. smith4(-atsign-)indiana.edu
Grants: HD28675 (Agency:United States NICHD)
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Journal: Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS (Psychol Sci), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Jan; vol 13 (issue 1) : pp 13-9
Dates: Created 2002/03/14; Completed 2002/05/07; Revised 2007/11/14;
PMID: 11892773, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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