title: Development of the shape bias during the second year.
abstract: The shape bias is an attentional preference children show for the shape of an object over other aspects of the object in a word-learning context. This bias, which aids in establishing a word-object pairing, was investigated in 12-, 18-, and 24-month-old children (n = 90) across noun, adjective, and no-label conditions. The present research presents evidence of development across this time span; there was a transition from a label reducing the chance of shape extensions to indiscriminate shape extensions to a label increasing the chance of shape extensions. This research supports the notion that children are focusing their extensions more toward shape during the course of development thereby developing a more mature and more specialized shape bias.
authors.affiliation: a The Ohio State University at Newark.
authors.forename: Julie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hupp
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male
keywords: adjectives; label extension; nouns; shape bias; word learning