Work

Do Novel Words Facilitate 18-Month-Olds’ Spatial Categorization?

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: 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.

Source: Child Development

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01100.x

Authors: Marianella Casasola, Jui Bhagwat

Institution: Cornell University

Language: English

Topic: Language Development and Disorders

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Infant spatial categorization, G387194517