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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 16, 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

Infants' individuation of agents and inert objects.

Luca Surian¹, Stefania Caldi

¹Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Corso Bettini, 31, 38068 Rovereto (Trento), Italy. luca.surian@unitn.it

Developmental Science

|February 4, 2010

Summary

Ten-month-old infants use dynamic cues to distinguish agents from inert objects, aiding object individuation. This ability develops before reliance on static features like shape, suggesting early conceptual understanding.

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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

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Infant Perception
Object Recognition

Background:

Object individuation is crucial for understanding the world.
Developmental research explores how infants track objects over time.
The role of dynamic versus static features in early individuation is debated.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate 10-month-old infants' use of dynamic features in object individuation.
To determine if infants can differentiate agents from inert objects based on motion.
To explore the developmental timeline of kind-based object individuation.

Main Methods:

Violation-of-expectancy paradigm with familiarization and test phases.
Familiarization involved objects appearing and disappearing behind a screen.
Test phase revealed either one or two objects, with infant looking time recorded.

Main Results:

Infants preferred one-object outcomes when an agent and inert object were involved (Experiment 1).
No preference was observed when two agents were presented (Experiment 2).
Infants demonstrated an ability to use dynamic information to individuate agents.

Conclusions:

Dynamic features are critical for infants' early detection of agents.
The concepts of 'agent' and 'inert object' emerge before 12 months, independent of language.
Findings challenge existing theories on the development of kind-based individuation and object files.