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Updated: Jul 14, 2026
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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
Published on: February 8, 2019
Labels can override perceptual categories in early infancy
Kim Plunkett1, Jon-Fan Hu, Leslie B Cohen
1Oxford University, Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford, UK. kim.plunkett@psy.ox.ac.uk
Cognition
|May 22, 2007
Summary
Labels significantly influence infant category formation before they can speak. Correlated labels aid categorization, while random or single labels disrupt or broaden it, demonstrating labels
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Cognitive science
- Infant cognition
Background:
- Existing research suggests labels aid infant categorization before 12 months.
- This study questions the justification of prior experimental findings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally demonstrate the causal role of labels in infant category formation.
- To investigate how different labeling conditions affect categorization in 10-month-old infants.
Main Methods:
- 10-month-old infants were trained to categorize novel cartoon drawings.
- Four conditions were tested: no labels, correlated labels, random labels, and a single label.
- Category formation was assessed using a novelty preference procedure without labels.
Main Results:
- Correlated labels allowed infants to form two categories, similar to no labels.
- Randomly assigned labels disrupted category formation.
- A single label led infants to form one broad category encompassing all objects.
Conclusions:
- Labeling conditions critically impact infant categorization, even before word production.
- Labels can override visual information in guiding infant category formation.
- This highlights the powerful influence of auditory cues on early cognitive development.
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