Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Thought before language.

Jean M Mandler1

  • 1Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. jmandler@ucsd.edu

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
|October 20, 2004
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

What Global-Before-Basic Trend? Commentary on Perceptually Based Approaches to Early Categorization.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2020
Same author

On the spatial foundations of the conceptual system and its enrichment.

Cognitive science·2012
Same author

On the origins of the conceptual system.

The American psychologist·2007
Same author

A confusion between understanding and understanding symbols.

Developmental science·2005
Same author

Understanding spatial relations: flexible infants, lexical adults.

Cognitive psychology·2003
Same journal

Multi-brain neurofeedback: what are we training for?

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

The developing vocal self.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Searching beyond decrements: Attentional guidance across the adult lifespan.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Looking into working memory through micro eye movements.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Timescapes of non-human experience.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Building word meanings from memories and predictions.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
See all related articles

Infants develop rich conceptual systems by 9 months, enabling language acquisition. Their early concepts, though refined, are less specific, leading to overextension of word meanings.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistic Psychology

Background:

  • Language acquisition in infants relies on a pre-existing conceptual foundation.
  • Infant cognitive development research indicates a sufficiently rich conceptual system by 9 months of age.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the nature of infant conceptual systems and their role in early language development.
  • To investigate the relationship between conceptual refinement and word meaning overextension.

Main Methods:

  • Review of recent research in infant cognitive development.
  • Analysis of evidence from object categorization, problem-solving, recall, and inference tasks.

Main Results:

  • By 9 months, infants demonstrate conceptual categorization beyond perception.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Evidence of problem-solving, long-term recall, and inductive reasoning in infants.
  • Early infant concepts are less specific than adult word meanings, persisting into the language acquisition phase.

    • Conclusions:

    • A robust conceptual system is present in infants by 9 months, facilitating language mapping.
    • The gradual refinement of early concepts explains the phenomenon of word meaning overextension in toddlers.