Infants' developing appreciation of similarities between model objects and their real-world referents.
Previous research suggests that model competence does not emerge until relatively late in infancy (20-26 months). Development was systematically analyzed within 3 key areas--count noun learning, dual representation, and categorization-hypothesized to support the emergence of model competence in the second year. In an object-handling preferential looking task, 21- to 26-month-olds matched model objects to referents only when count noun knowledge was high. When dual representation demands were reduced through the use of pictures in place of model objects, 20-month-olds with low count noun vocabularies succeeded in relating symbols to referents. Finally, change in infants' construal of a model object as a member of a category was documented between 14 and 20 months of age.
Younger
Barbara A
BA
Purdue University, Department of Psychological Sciences, 703 Third Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081, USA. youngerr@purdue.edu
Johnson
Kathy E
KE
D001290:Attitude; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014796:Visual Perception