Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

The preoperational stage, the second of Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, spans approximately ages 2 to 7 and is characterized by the emergence of symbolic thinking. During this stage, children use language, images, and symbols to represent objects and concepts, enabling them to engage in imaginative and pretend play. This symbolic thinking supports children's ability to perform make-believe actions, such as imagining a broom as a horse or their hand as a phone, blending...

Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other

Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other

According to George Herbert Mead, as children progress beyond the game stage, they develop a more comprehensive understanding of societal rules and norms. This cognitive and social development enables them to internalize the expectations of the broader community, refining their ability to regulate behavior.Consistent participation in organized activities is crucial in helping children recognize that their actions are not isolated but contribute to a more significant, interconnected group effort.

Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior

Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior

Automatic processing refers to the cognitive operations that occur without conscious intent or awareness, playing a fundamental role in shaping social cognition and behavior. These processes enable individuals to navigate complex social environments efficiently by relying on mental shortcuts and pre-existing knowledge structures known as schemas. One of the most influential mechanisms underlying automatic processing is priming, which subtly activates mental representations through exposure to...

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

Generalization, discrimination, and extinction are key concepts in operant conditioning that influence how behaviors are learned and maintained.
Generalization occurs when a behavior reinforced in one context is performed in similar situations. For instance, a student who studies diligently for calculus and receives excellent grades might apply the same study habits to psychology and history, expecting similar results. Generalization shows how learning in one setting can influence behavior in...

Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...

Group Design

Group Design

The most basic experimental design involves two groups: the experimental group and the control group. The two groups are designed to be the same except for one difference— experimental manipulation. The experimental group gets the experimental manipulation—that is, the treatment or variable being tested—and the control group does not. Since experimental manipulation is the only difference between the experimental and control groups, we can be sure that any differences between the two are due to...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Contributed Talks III: Infants' eye movements to scene statistics in natural behavior.

Journal of vision·2025

Same author

Developmental Changes in How Head Orientation Structures Infants' Visual Attention.

Developmental psychobiology·2024

Same author

Presentation and Management of Granulomatous Mastitis in the United States: Results of an American Society of Breast Surgeons Registry Study.

Annals of surgical oncology·2024

Same author

Social fear extinction susceptibility is associated with Microbiota-Gut-Brain axis alterations.

Brain, behavior, and immunity·2024

Same author

Intensive Primary Care Nursing: Exploring the Impact of a Nurse-Led Model for Medically and Social Complex Patients.

Clinical nursing research·2024

Same author

Dynamic nature of viral and bacterial communities in human faeces.

iScience·2024

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Priming overgeneralizations in two- and four-year-old children.

Lisa Gershkoff-Stowe¹, Brenda Connell, Linda Smith

¹Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. gershkof@indiana.edu

Journal of Child Language

|October 5, 2006

Summary

Children

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Science

Background:

Overgeneralization, a common error in early word learning, involves children misusing words for objects.
This phenomenon is frequently observed during the initial phases of language acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a laboratory method for eliciting word overgeneralizations in children.
To investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying children's overgeneralization errors in word retrieval.

Main Methods:

Experiment 1: Elicited overgeneralizations in 18 two-year-olds by priming object names.
Experiment 2: Compared overgeneralization in 30 two-year-olds and 39 four-year-olds with novel objects.
Utilized perceptual similarity to known objects to prime target object names.

More Related Videos

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Published on: December 14, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

Published on: December 14, 2012

Main Results:

Children's word retrieval appears to be a blend of prior activation and similarity-based activation.
Findings suggest a common activation-retrieval mechanism across different age groups.

Conclusions:

A theoretical account of overgeneralization is proposed, based on adult language processing models.
This mechanism may explain various naming errors, not just overgeneralizations, in child language.
Suggests that errors may reflect retrieval processes rather than solely category representation gaps.