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...

Socioemotional Development during Infancy

Socioemotional Development during Infancy

Socio-emotional development in infancy is primarily shaped by early emotional responses and social connections, with temperament playing a central role. Temperament refers to the consistent patterns in an individual's emotional and behavioral responses, observable even in infancy. By examining temperament, researchers can better understand an infant's unique ways of interacting with the world, influencing subsequent personality and socio-emotional growth.
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...

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...

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 4 of Cognitive Development

Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development

The formal operational stage, as described in Piaget's cognitive development theory, begins around age 11 and extends into adulthood. It marks the emergence of advanced cognitive abilities that differentiate adolescent and adult thinking from those of younger children. This stage is characterized by abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and a more complex understanding of self and others.
Abstract Reasoning and Hypothetical-Deductive Thinking
Unlike the concrete operational...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Gesture Use Across Different Concepts: Focusing on Cross-Linguistic Diversity.

Topics in cognitive science·2026

Same author

Leveraging community science to encourage a more inclusive and culturally representative developmental science.

The British journal of developmental psychology·2026

Same author

Distinct temporal dynamics of speech and gesture processing: Insights from event-related potentials across L1 and L2.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2026

Same author

Talking Hands, Shifting Tongues: How Does the Use of Co-speech Gestures and Second Language Relate to Emotional Autobiographical Memory Narration?

Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)·2025

Same author

Assessing Others' Knowledge Through Their Speech Disfluencies and Gestures.

Cognitive science·2025

Same author

Neurobiological Contributions to Speech and Language Interventions: Applications to Developmental Populations.

Developmental neuropsychology·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 19, 2026

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

Infant categorization of path relations during dynamic events.

Shannon M Pruden¹, Sarah Roseberry, Tilbe Göksun

¹Florida International University. shannon.pruden@fiu.edu

Child Development

|September 4, 2012

Summary

Infants learn to categorize spatial paths, understanding how objects move. This ability is crucial for language development and is influenced by the relationship between objects.

More Related Videos

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

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: May 19, 2026

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

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

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 Science
Developmental Psychology
Linguistics

Background:

Learning relational terms requires abstracting spatial relations.
Categorizing movement paths is fundamental for understanding spatial relationships.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how infants categorize spatial paths across different manners of movement.
To determine the role of figure-ground relationships and language in path categorization.

Main Methods:

Three experiments were conducted with English-learning infants aged 10-12 months.
Studies involved observing infants' categorization of a figure's path under varying conditions, including changes in manner and object presence.

Main Results:

Infants successfully categorized paths, demonstrating an understanding of spatial trajectories.
Path categorization was hindered when the ground object was absent, highlighting its importance.
Language was suggested as a potential factor influencing category formation.

Conclusions:

English-learning infants can categorize spatial paths, a key component in many languages.
The figure-ground relationship plays a significant role in infants' perception of spatial paths.
Language acquisition may guide the development of spatial categorization skills in infants.