title: Categorization in 3- and 4-month-old infants: an advantage of words over tones.
abstract: Neonates prefer human speech to other nonlinguistic auditory stimuli. However, it remains an open question whether there are any conceptual consequences of words on object categorization in infants younger than 6 months. The current study examined the influence of words and tones on object categorization in forty-six 3- to 4-month-old infants. Infants were familiarized to different exemplars of a category accompanied by either a labeling phrase or a tone sequence. In test, infants viewed novel category and new within-category exemplars. Infants who heard labeling phrases provided evidence of categorization at test while infants who heard tone sequences did not, suggesting that infants as young as 3 months of age treat words and tones differently vis-à-vis object categorization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. alissaferry@u.northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Alissa L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Ferry
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hespos
authors.forename: Sandra R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Waxman
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D016010:Binomial Distribution; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003118:Color Perception; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010898:Pitch Perception; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception; D014163:Transfer, Psychology