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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
Talking about the near and dear: Infants' comprehension of displaced speech
Patricia A Ganea1, Megan M Saylor
1Institute of Child Study, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. patricia.ganea@utoronto.ca
Abstract:
The present research investigated the role of familiarity and proximity in infants' comprehension of displaced speech. When 13- and 16-month-old infants heard a researcher talk about a familiar person immediately after she left the room, they showed comprehension of the name by looking, pointing, or searching for the person in question. The majority of 16-month-olds were also able to reveal comprehension of the reference to the absent person after a 16-min delay, and they were able to respond to the name of an unfamiliar person as well. The 13-month-olds had more difficulty responding after the delay and to the name of a less familiar person. Thus, in the early phases of absent reference comprehension, infants' ability to respond to displaced speech can vary as a function of the temporal gap between the verbal reference and the last appearance of the referent, and of how strong their representation of the referent is.
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