title: Dog is a dog is a dog: infant rule learning is not specific to language.
abstract: Human infants possess powerful learning mechanisms used for the acquisition of language. To what extent are these mechanisms domain specific? One well-known infant language learning mechanism is the ability to detect and generalize rule-like similarity patterns, such as ABA or ABB [Marcus, G. F., Vijayan, S., Rao, S. B., & Vishton, P. M. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77-80.]. The results of three experiments demonstrate that 7-month-old infants can detect and generalize these same patterns when the elements consist of pictures of animals (dogs and cats). These findings indicate that rule learning of this type is not specific to language acquisition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. jsaffran@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Jenny R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Saffran
authors.forename: Seth D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Pollak
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Seibel
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shkolnik
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007802:Language; D007858:Learning; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary