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Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

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Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development01:14

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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...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

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

Published on: February 8, 2019

Specifying the role of function in infant categorization.

Amy E Booth1, Kathryn Schuler, Ruth Zajicek

  • 1Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60028, USA. a-booth@northwestern.edu

Infant Behavior & Development
|October 19, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Object functions significantly aid infant categorization skills. Understanding shared functions helps infants form categories faster, reducing the need for multiple examples.

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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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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

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

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

Published on: February 8, 2019

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

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

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Infant Cognition

Background:

  • Infant ability to categorize objects is crucial for learning.
  • Object function is hypothesized to play a role in early categorization.
  • Previous research suggests a link between object properties and categorization.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role and impact of object functions in infant artifact categorization.
  • To determine if object function is a primary driver of categorization compared to motion.
  • To explore the necessity of shared functionality for successful categorization.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments were conducted with 16-month-old infants.
  • Experiment 1 compared categorization based on function versus motion.
  • Experiment 2 examined categorization with varied functions across exemplars.
  • Experiment 3 assessed categorization with and without function information during training.

Main Results:

  • Object functions facilitated categorization more than distinctive motions.
  • Infants failed to categorize when exemplars had different functions, highlighting the importance of shared functionality.
  • Providing function information during training improved novel category extension on the first trial.

Conclusions:

  • Object functions play a critical conceptual role in facilitating early artifact categorization.
  • Shared functionality is essential for infants to form novel categories.
  • Knowledge of object function can accelerate category formation, reducing the need for extensive exemplar exposure.