Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

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...

The Nativist Approach

The Nativist Approach

The nativist approach to infant cognitive development proposes that infants are born with inherent knowledge structures that allow them to interpret the world almost immediately. This perspective contrasts with earlier developmental theories, such as those proposed by Jean Piaget, which emphasized a more gradual acquisition of cognitive abilities through interaction with the environment. One key concept in this approach is object permanence — the understanding that objects continue to exist...

Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development

Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development

During Piaget's concrete operational stage, from ages 7 to 11, children exhibit a marked increase in logical thinking skills, specifically in relation to tangible, real-world events. This stage is characterized by the development of several essential cognitive concepts, including conservation, reversibility, and classification, all of which support the child's evolving capacity for structured thought.
Conservation and Constancy of Quantity
A significant cognitive milestone in the concrete...

Concepts and Prototypes

Concepts and Prototypes

The human nervous system handles vast amounts of information by translating sensory stimuli into neural impulses, which the brain processes, creating thoughts expressed through language or stored as memories. The brain also synthesizes information from emotions and memories, which significantly influence thoughts and behaviors. This intricate process creates a comprehensive mental picture.
The brain organizes this information using concepts, which are mental categories grouping linguistic data,...

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development emphasizes the role of thinking in a child's learning process, suggesting that children are naturally curious about their environment. His approach to development is discontinuous, proposing that cognitive abilities progress through distinct stages, each with unique characteristics. Central to Piaget's theory is schemata—mental structures that allow individuals to understand and interpret the world.
Schemata: Building Blocks of Knowledge
Schemata...

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

The preoperational stage, the second of Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, spans approximately ages 2 to 7 and is characterized by the emergence of symbolic thinking. During this stage, children use language, images, and symbols to represent objects and concepts, enabling them to engage in imaginative and pretend play. This symbolic thinking supports children's ability to perform make-believe actions, such as imagining a broom as a horse or their hand as a phone, blending...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Reliability of Behavioral and fNIRS Neural Responses: Assessments During Posture-Inhibitory Control Dual Tasking.

NeuroSci·2026

Same author

Positive youth development from early adolescence to young adulthood in nine countries: Intercepts, trajectories, and associations with parental warmth and behavioral control.

Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence·2026

Same author

Correction: Mothers' eating disorder history and mother and infant attention to food during infant meal times: a candidate for intergenerational transmission of eating disorder behaviours.

Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry·2026

Same author

Rubbing off on each other: Applying a developmental science perspective to variance in primal world beliefs by family and culture.

Applied developmental science·2026

Same author

Acculturation of maternal responses to infant distress among three groups of immigrant families to the United States.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2026

Same author

Mothers' eating disorder history and mother and infant attention to food during infant meal times: a candidate for intergenerational transmission of eating disorder behaviours.

Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 12, 2026

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

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

Experience-based and on-line categorization of objects in early infancy.

Marc H Bornstein¹, Clay Mash

¹Developmental Neuroscience, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7971, USA. Marc_H_Bornstein@nih.gov

Child Development

|June 25, 2010

Summary

Infants categorize objects in two ways: immediately upon encountering them or by using prior experience. This study shows 5-month-olds utilize both on-line categorization and prior experience for object recognition.

More Related Videos

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

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 12, 2026

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

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

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

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Developmental Psychology
Infant Perception

Background:

Understanding infant categorization is crucial for cognitive development research.
Two primary hypotheses exist: on-line categorization versus reliance on prior experience.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the categorization processes employed by 5-month-old infants.
To determine if infants categorize on-line or rely on pre-existing knowledge.

Main Methods:

Familiarization of 5-month-olds with novel object categories in a laboratory setting.
Comparison of categorization abilities between infants with and without prior home experience with similar objects.

Main Results:

Infants familiarized in the lab categorized novel objects of the same category on-line.
Infants with prior home experience recognized novel category objects as familiar immediately.
Both on-line categorization and prior experience influence infant object categorization.

Conclusions:

Five-month-old infants demonstrate flexible categorization strategies.
Both immediate environmental exposure and accumulated experience contribute to infant object categorization abilities.