title: Two-year-olds use the generic/nongeneric distinction to guide their inferences about novel kinds.
abstract: These studies investigated two hundred and forty-four 24- and 30-month-olds' sensitivity to generic versus nongeneric language when acquiring knowledge about novel kinds. Toddlers were administered an inductive inference task, during which they heard a generic noun phrase (e.g., "Blicks drink milk") or a nongeneric noun phrase (e.g., "This blick drinks milk") paired with an action (e.g., drinking) modeled on an object. They were then provided with the model and a nonmodel exemplar and asked to imitate the action. After hearing nongeneric phrases, 30-month-olds, but not 24-month-olds, imitated more often with the model than with the nonmodel exemplar. In contrast, after hearing generic phrases, 30-month-olds imitated equally often with both exemplars. These results suggest that 30-month-olds use the generic/nongeneric distinction to guide their inferences about novel kinds.
authors.affiliation: University of Calgary, Canada. gradhams@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: Susan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: Samantha L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Nayer
authors.forename: Susan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Gelman
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D002666:Psychology, Child; D014706:Verbal Learning