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Updated: Jul 8, 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
Preference for language in early infancy: the human language bias is not speech specific
Ursula C Krentz1, David P Corina
1Department of Psychology, University of Washington, USA. krentu@spu.edu
Developmental Science
|January 4, 2008
Summary
Infants show an early bias for human language, whether spoken or signed. This preference shifts by 10 months, suggesting language acquisition involves developing specific language processing skills.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive science
Background:
- Infants possess an innate interest in language, crucial for native language acquisition.
- Previous research suggested a bias towards spoken language in hearing infants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if infants' linguistic bias is specific to speech or extends to all human languages (spoken and signed).
- To understand the developmental trajectory of this attentional bias in early infancy.
Main Methods:
- Comparing 6- and 10-month-old infants' attention to unfamiliar American Sign Language versus non-linguistic pantomime.
- Utilizing visual attention measures to assess infant preference.
Main Results:
- Six-month-old infants demonstrated a preference for American Sign Language over pantomime.
- This preference for signed language diminished by 10 months of age.
- No preference was observed for non-linguistic pantomime at either age.
Conclusions:
- Evidence suggests that the early infant bias is for human language generally, not speech specifically.
- The findings indicate that infants' attentional mechanisms adapt as they develop language-specific processing.
- Properties of human languages may drive this early, language-general attentional bias.
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