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Updated: Jul 19, 2026
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Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
Attention to novel objects during verb learning
Alan W Kersten1, Linda B Smith
1Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton 33431-0991, USA. akersten@fau.edu
Child Development
|January 14, 2004
Summary
Young children learning new words focus on object appearance, unlike adults. This suggests object knowledge is key for understanding new verbs, impacting early language acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Linguistics
Background:
- Understanding how children learn new words is crucial for developmental psychology.
- Previous research suggests adults prioritize motion over appearance when learning verbs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether young children attend to object appearance or motion when learning novel nouns and verbs.
- To compare children's learning strategies with those of adults.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted with 72 English-speaking children aged 3.5 to 4 years.
- Participants learned novel nouns and verbs in contexts involving novel or familiar objects and their motions.
- Adults (N=20) were also tested for comparison.
Main Results:
- Children learning novel nouns focused exclusively on object appearance, even when motion was relevant.
- Children learning novel verbs attended equally to object appearance and motion.
- Adults and children learning verbs with familiar objects prioritized motion over appearance.
Conclusions:
- Young children may prioritize object appearance during novel verb learning, possibly because object knowledge is a prerequisite for understanding verb meaning.
- This contrasts with adult learning strategies, highlighting developmental differences in word learning.
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