Related Experiment Videos
Labeling guides object individuation in 12-month-old infants
Fei Xu1, Melissa Cote, Allison Baker
1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. fei@psych.ubc.ca
Psychological Science
|May 5, 2005
Summary
Twelve-month-old infants use object labels to infer quantities. Hearing two distinct object names, unlike one, prompts infants to search for more items, indicating early understanding of referential cues.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Linguistics
Background:
- Object individuation refers to an infant's ability to distinguish between individual objects.
- The role of linguistic input, specifically object naming, in shaping early object representations is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of object naming on object individuation in 12-month-old infants.
- To determine if linguistic cues, compared to emotional expressions, influence infants' expectations about object quantities.
Main Methods:
- A manual search method was employed with 12-month-old infants.
- Experiment 1: Infants heard either one or two distinct object labels before searching in a box.
- Experiment 2: Infants heard either one or two emotional expressions before searching.
Main Results:
- Infants searched longer after hearing two distinct object labels compared to one, suggesting an expectation of multiple objects.
- No difference in search behavior was observed when infants heard one versus two emotional expressions.
- These findings indicate the effect is specific to linguistic, referential cues.
Conclusions:
- Twelve-month-old infants utilize intentional and referential cues from object naming to guide their object representations.
- Evidence suggests a rudimentary form of the mutual-exclusivity constraint may be active by the end of the first year of life.
- Linguistic input significantly influences early cognitive development and object understanding.