Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Language Development01:22

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...
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Introduction to Learning01:18

Introduction to Learning

Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skills through practice or experience, leading to long-lasting behavioral changes. This acquisition occurs through interaction with the environment and requires practice or experience. For instance, mastering a skill such as surfing requires considerable practice and experience, highlighting the essential role of repeated interactions with the environment in learning.
In contrast to learned behaviors, unlearned behaviors such as crying, sexual...
Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...
Observational Learning01:12

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's observational learning, also known as imitation or modeling, occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior. It is a quicker process than operant conditioning. A well-known example is the Bobo doll study, where children who saw an adult acting aggressively towards the doll were more likely to act aggressively when left alone, compared to those who observed a nonaggressive adult. Many psychologists view observational learning as a form of latent learning because...
Conjugation01:19

Conjugation

Conjugation is a form of horizontal gene transfer that primarily occurs in bacteria and some archaea, promoting genetic diversity and adaptation. Bacteria can acquire resistance genes through conjugative plasmids, allowing them to survive antibiotic treatments that would otherwise be lethal. This process involves direct contact between cells through specialized structures such as the sex pilus and is mediated by conjugative plasmids, including the F (fertility) factor.Conjugation requires...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Leveraging community science to encourage a more inclusive and culturally representative developmental science.

The British journal of developmental psychology·2026
Same author

Hispanic Parents' Beliefs and Practices during Shared Reading in English and Spanish.

Early education and development·2026
Same author

Beyond Socioeconomic Status: A Strengths-Focused Structural Equation Modeling Study of Collaboration-Focused Parenting Beliefs, Interaction Quality, and Language Outcomes.

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR·2025
Same author

How the perception of events in children is influenced by language.

Cognition·2025
Same author

What does play have to do with it? A concrete and digital spatial intervention with 3-year-olds predicts spatial and math learning.

Developmental psychology·2025
Same author

A new screener predicts toddlers' language development from age 2-3: The QUILS:TOD.

Infant behavior & development·2025
Same journal

Misinformation as strategy: Epistemic consequences and the undermining of shared truth.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Geographical psychology: Spatial variation in psychological phenomena and their consequences.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Multi-brain neurofeedback: what are we training for?

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

The developing vocal self.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Searching beyond decrements: Attentional guidance across the adult lifespan.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same journal

Looking into working memory through micro eye movements.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

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

Published on: February 8, 2019

How toddlers begin to learn verbs.

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff1, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek

  • 1School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. roberta@udel.edu

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
|September 2, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Children learn verbs by understanding event components and mapping them to words. This process, while challenging, is crucial for language acquisition and grammar development in toddlers.

More Related Videos

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

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

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
11:18

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task

Published on: June 1, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

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

Published on: February 8, 2019

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

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

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
11:18

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task

Published on: June 1, 2015

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Verbs are essential for grammar, but their acquisition is complex for children.
  • Existing theories like the 'natural partitions hypothesis' offer insights into verb learning.
  • The Emergentist Coalition Model has explained noun learning and shows promise for verb acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explain how infants conceptualize event components for verb learning.
  • To investigate the challenges in mapping linguistic verbs to conceptual representations.
  • To explore how perceptual, social, and linguistic information integrate for verb acquisition.

Main Methods:

  • Building upon Gentner's 'natural partitions hypothesis'.
  • Applying principles of the Emergentist Coalition Model to verb learning.
  • Analyzing the transition from perceptual to linguistic information in toddlers.

Main Results:

  • Infants must conceptualize event components to learn verbs.
  • The mapping of verbs to these conceptual components is a significant hurdle.
  • Toddlers can detect and categorize some conceptual underpinnings of verb categories.

Conclusions:

  • Verb acquisition involves conceptualizing event components and mapping language to them.
  • The mapping process is complex and requires integrating diverse information sources.
  • The Emergentist Coalition Model provides a framework for understanding how children link verbs to actions.