title: Infants' expectations about object label reference.
abstract: The aim of this research was to examine whether infants at the early stages of lexical development were sensitive to the word-category linkage. In Experiment 1, 16-to 19-month-old infants were requested to match a target with either a basic-level or a thematic match, with or without a novel label. Stimuli were presented using the preferential looking paradigm. Infants in the Novel Label condition looked significantly longer at the basic-level match than infants in the No Label condition. In Experiment 2, infants were presented with a target, followed by a basic-level match and a superordinate-level match with or without a novel label. Again, infants in the Novel Label condition looked significantly longer at the basic-level match than infants in the No Label condition. Taken together, these findings indicate that infants initially assume that novel words label basic-level categories and thereby do honour the word-category linkage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, AB. grahams@acs.ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poulin-Dubois
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014825:Vocabulary