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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Taking an action perspective on infant's object representations.

Gustaf Gredebäck¹, Claes von Hofsten

¹Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Postboks 1094, Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.

Progress in Brain Research

|October 9, 2007

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Infants develop object prediction skills around 4 months, influenced by experience and event factors. This ability is not all-or-none but develops gradually, supporting a constructivist view of infant cognition.

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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

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

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Cognitive Science
Infant Perception

Background:

Infants demonstrate reactive saccade latency reduction from 7 weeks.
Predictive abilities for occluded objects emerge around 4 months of age.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the developmental trajectory of object prediction in infants.
To explore factors influencing infants' ability to predict occluded object reappearance.
To support a constructivist model of infant object representations.

Main Methods:

Observational studies on infant visual attention and saccade responses.
Analysis of infant reactions to varying occlusion durations and object disappearance methods.
Longitudinal assessment of experience-dependent learning in object tracking.

Main Results:

Object prediction is not binary but depends on occlusion duration, disappearance method, and prior experience.
Infants' understanding of object motion relies on extrapolated experiences.
Younger infants show experience-based improvements in reactive saccades, not prediction.

Conclusions:

Infant object representation is constructivist, built upon accumulated experiences.
Predictive abilities develop gradually, influenced by multiple simultaneous factors.
Experience shapes infants' expectations and rapid adaptation to novel object trajectories.