Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Language Development01:22

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...
The Nativist Approach01:21

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...
Constraints and Statical Determinacy01:26

Constraints and Statical Determinacy

In structural engineering, the equilibrium of a system is not only determined by its equations of equilibrium but also with the help of constraints. Constraints refer to restrictions on the motion of a system. The proper combinations of constraints can minimize the total number of constraints needed to maintain a system in mechanical equilibrium. When this happens, the system is said to be statically determinate. For such systems, the unknown reaction supports can be estimated using equilibrium...
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

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...
Components of Language01:24

Components of Language

Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs. “eh”). Phonemes combine to...
Associative Learning01:27

Associative Learning

Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning.
Classical conditioning, also known...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Moment-to-Moment Coordination of Parent-Infant Visual Attention: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Framework Within Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling.

Developmental science·2026
Same author

Prediction from Statistical Learning Aids Auditory Scene Analysis.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

A systematic review of statistical learning in autism spectrum disorder.

Molecular autism·2025
Same author

Interrogating Early Word Knowledge: Factors That Influence the Alignment Between Caregiver-Report and Experimental Measures.

Developmental science·2025
Same author

Statistical learning: A core mechanism in a developmental hierarchy.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2025
Same author

Parents' multimodal spatial language structures infants' in-the-moment attention during spatial play.

Developmental psychology·2025
Same journal

Early and Chronic Postnatal Depression, Maternal Sensitivity to Non-Distress and Infant Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in an Indian Birth Cohort.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2026
Same journal

Infants Anticipate the Timing of Sounds From Dynamic Collision Events.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2026
Same journal

Dips in Development: Learning to Walk Temporarily Disrupts Infant Vocalization.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2026
Same journal

Infants' Multimodal Requests and Protests Elicit Responses From Mothers During Everyday Home Activities.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2026
Same journal

Melody and Lyrics Are Integrated by Late Infancy During Recognition of Music Learned at Home.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2026
Same journal

Joint Attention in Late Preterm Infants: Developmental Trajectory and Contribution of Maternal Interaction.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 4, 2026

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

Phonotactic constraints on infant word learning.

Katharine Graf Estes1, Jan Edwards, Jenny R Saffran

  • 1University of California, Davis.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
|February 8, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Infants use their knowledge of native language sound patterns to learn new words. They learn words with legal sound patterns better than those with illegal patterns, especially if they have a larger vocabulary.

More Related Videos

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

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 4, 2026

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

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

Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Speech Perception

Background:

  • Infants acquire native language sound patterns early in life.
  • How infants apply this knowledge to word learning is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if infants use phonotactic knowledge during word learning.
  • To examine the influence of native language sound patterns on associating sounds with object meanings.

Main Methods:

  • 18-month-old infants were presented with novel objects and object labels.
  • Labels were either phonotactically legal (common in English) or illegal (uncommon in English).
  • A looking-while-listening measure assessed infants' comprehension.

Main Results:

  • Infants correctly identified objects with legal labels but not illegal labels.
  • Vocabulary size modulated this effect: larger vocabularies showed a greater difference.
  • Infants with larger receptive vocabularies were more sensitive to label legality.

Conclusions:

  • Infants' knowledge of native language sound patterns influences their word learning abilities.
  • Phonotactic regularity aids infants in mapping sounds to word meanings.
  • Vocabulary development may enhance the use of phonotactic knowledge in word acquisition.