Do novel words facilitate 18-month-olds' spatial categorization?
Eighteen-month-olds' spatial categorization was tested when hearing a novel spatial word. Infants formed an abstract categorical representation of support (i.e., placing 1 object on another) when hearing a novel spatial particle during habituation but not when viewing the events in silence. Infants with a productive spatial vocabulary did not discriminate the support relation when hearing the same novel word as a count noun. However, infants who were not yet producing spatial words did attend to the support relation when presented with the novel count noun. The results indicate that 18-month-olds can use a novel particle (possibly assisted by a familiar verb) to facilitate their spatial categorization but that the specificity of this effect varies with infants' acquisition of spatial language.
Casasola
Marianella
M
Department of Human Development, Cornell University, B51 MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. mc272@cornell.edu
Bhagwat
Jui
J
D001288:Attention; D032882:Comprehension; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012660:Semantics; D013028:Space Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary