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Updated: Jul 9, 2026
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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
Published on: April 19, 2017
Grammatical pattern learning by human infants and cotton-top tamarin monkeys
Jenny Saffran1, Marc Hauser, Rebecca Seibel
1Department of Psychology & Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706-1696, USA. jsaffran@wisc.edu
Cognition
|December 18, 2007
Summary
Human infants readily learn complex language structures using statistical patterns, unlike tamarins, suggesting infant learning abilities shape human language. This research explores cross-linguistic similarities and language acquisition constraints.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Cross-linguistic similarities suggest constraints on language structure.
- Human learning abilities may explain these linguistic universals.
- Prior research lacked direct comparisons of infant and primate learning of grammar.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if human infants and non-human primates learn grammatical structures differently.
- To test if infant learning biases favor structures found in natural language.
- To determine if primate learning is less constrained by human language structure.
Main Methods:
- Five experiments compared 12-month-old human infants and cotton-top tamarin monkeys.
- A familiarization-discrimination paradigm was used with comparable materials.
- The study focused on learning statistically predictive grammatical structures.
Main Results:
- Human infants rapidly acquired complex grammatical structures using statistical cues.
- Infants failed to learn structures lacking statistical predictability.
- Tamarins only used statistical patterns for simpler grammatical structures.
Conclusions:
- Infant learning abilities facilitate natural language acquisition.
- Human learning biases may impose constraints on the evolution of language structure.
- Comparative studies reveal species-specific learning mechanisms in language processing.
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