The role of language in acquiring object kind concepts in infancy.

Full Abstract

Four experiments investigated whether 9-month-old infants could use the presence of labels to help them establish a representation of two distinct objects in a complex object individuation task. We found that the presence of two distinct labels facilitated object individuation, but the presence of one label for both objects, two distinct tones, two distinct sounds, or two distinct emotional expressions did not. These findings suggest that language may play an important role in the acquisition of sortal/object kind concepts in infancy:
words may serve as "essence placeholders". Implications for the relationship between language and conceptual development are discussed.

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Author information

Author/s: Xu, Fei (F);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, 125 Nightingale Hall, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. fxu(-atsign-)neu.edu

Grants: R03MH59040-02 (Agency:United States NIMH) ; R37-HD23103 (Agency:United States NICHD)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Cognition (Cognition), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Oct; vol 85 (issue 3) : pp 223-50

Dates: Created 2002/08/09; Completed 2002/11/04; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12169410, 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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