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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
Published on: February 8, 2019
Infant object categorization transcends diverse object-context relations
Marc H Bornstein1, Martha E Arterberry, Clay Mash
1Child and Family Research, Program in Developmental Neuroscience, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, Bethesda, MD 20892-7971, USA. Marc_H_Bornstein@nih.gov
Abstract:
Infants' categorization of objects in different object-context relations was investigated. The experiment used a multiple-exemplar habituation-categorization procedure where 92 6-month olds formed categories of animals and vehicles embedded in congruent, incongruent, and homogeneous object-context relations. Across diverse object-context relations, infants habituated to multiple exemplars within a category and categorized novel members of both animal and vehicle categories. Infants showed a slight advantage for categorizing animals. Infant object categorization appears to be robust to diversity in object-context relations.
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