Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026

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
Categorizing with gender: does implicit grammatical gender affect semantic processing in 24-month-old toddlers?
1Language Acquisition Junior Research Group, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany. sbobb@uni-goettingen.de
Abstract:
The current study investigated the interaction of implicit grammatical gender and semantic category knowledge during object identification. German-learning toddlers (24-month-olds) were presented with picture pairs and heard a noun (without a preceding article) labeling one of the pictures. Labels for target and distracter images either matched or mismatched in grammatical gender and either matched or mismatched in semantic category. When target and distracter overlapped in both semantic and gender information, target recognition was impaired compared with when target and distracter overlapped on only one dimension. Results suggest that by 24 months of age, German-learning toddlers are already forming not only semantic but also grammatical gender categories and that these sources of information are activated, and interact, during object identification.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior
Language Development
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 Approach
Stereotype Content Model

