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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 11, 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

Social categories guide young children's preferences for novel objects.

Kristin Shutts¹, Mahzarin R Banaji, Elizabeth S Spelke

¹Department of Psychology, Harvard University, USA. kshutts@wisc.edu

Developmental Science

|July 2, 2010

Summary

Children aged 3 prefer choices endorsed by peers of the same gender and age. These social categories, especially gender and age, spontaneously guide young children's preferences more than race.

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Last Updated: Jun 11, 2026

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

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Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Social Psychology
Cognitive Development

Background:

Children's preference formation is influenced by social cues.
Understanding early social categorization and its impact on choice is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how social categories like gender, race, and age influence 3-year-old children's preferences.
To determine which social categories are most salient in guiding children's choices.

Main Methods:

3-year-old children were presented with choices endorsed by unfamiliar individuals varying in gender, race, and age.
Children's selections between objects or activities were recorded in two experiments.

Main Results:

Children showed strong preferences for choices endorsed by individuals of their own gender and age.
Preference consistency was lower for race-based endorsements.
Children did not consciously acknowledge the influence of these social categories on their choices.

Conclusions:

Gender and age are spontaneously encoded social categories that significantly influence young children's preferences.
Gender and age appear to be more powerful determinants of preference in early childhood than race.