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

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious mimicry occurs when individuals alter their mannerisms to match the behaviors and expressions of those nearby, without intention.

Language Development

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...

Channels of Non-Verbal Communication

Channels of Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication plays a critical role in human interaction, influencing how individuals perceive emotions and psychological states. It operates through four primary channels: facial expressions, eye contact, body language, and touch. These non-verbal cues help convey meaning beyond spoken language and are often culturally influenced.Facial Expressions and Emotional RecognitionFacial expressions are among the most powerful and universal forms of non-verbal communication. Research has...

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...

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...

Observational Learning

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...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Acquiring generic knowledge without induction in infancy.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same author

EVApeCognition: An 18-Year Dataset of Great Ape Cognition.

Scientific data·2026

Same author

Generic information supports the long-term retention of novel labels.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same author

Adults Represent Others' Logical Inferences Even When It Is Unnecessary.

Cognitive science·2025

Same author

Children's Trait Inference and Partner Choice in a Cooperative Game.

Child development·2025

Same author

Do infants use cues of saliva-sharing to infer close relationships? A replication of Thomas <i>et al</i>. (2022).

Royal Society open science·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Communicative function demonstration induces kind-based artifact representation in preverbal infants.

Judit Futó¹, Erno Téglás, Gergely Csibra

¹Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. jdtfuto@gmail.com

|July 8, 2010

Summary

Ten-month-old infants use object function, not just appearance, to learn about human-made objects. Communicative demonstrations of function help infants categorize artifacts from an early age.

More Related Videos

A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

Published on: October 4, 2015

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

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

Published on: October 4, 2015

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

Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Developmental Psychology
Infant Perception

Background:

Infants learn about human-made objects (artifacts) by categorizing them.
Traditional theories suggest infants rely on perceptual features for categorization.
Artifacts possess abstract properties, like function, that may also guide early categorization.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if infants represent artifacts based on their functions.
To determine if functional demonstrations influence infant object individuation and categorization.
To explore the role of communicative signals and causal intervention in infant artifact learning.

Main Methods:

Utilized an object individuation paradigm with 10-month-old infants.
Demonstrated sequential, distinct functions of novel objects emerging from behind a screen.
Manipulated communicative signals and causal interventions during functional demonstrations.

Main Results:

Infants inferred the presence of two objects when two distinct functions were demonstrated sequentially.
Communicative signals and causal intervention were necessary for this numerical expectation.
Demonstrating two functions of a single artifact created an illusion of two objects, indicating function as a kind indicator.

Conclusions:

Preverbal infants utilize object function as a key indicator for artifact kind membership.
Infant sensitivity to function guides and supports their learning about artifacts.
Findings challenge traditional views emphasizing only perceptual features in early artifact categorization.