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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
Nonhuman primate vocalizations support categorization in very young human infants.
Alissa L Ferry1, Susan J Hespos, Sandra R Waxman
1Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
Summary
Infants initially respond to primate vocalizations, but by 6 months, their brains tune into human speech. This specialization is crucial for developing language and cognitive skills, linking sounds to meaning.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Linguistics
Background:
- Human language is a unique species signature, intricately linked to cognition.
- Infants must learn to identify language signals and connect them to meaning for acquisition.
- Early auditory preferences in infants are crucial for cognitive development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental origins of the link between human vocalizations and infant cognition.
- To understand how infants' auditory processing and cognitive abilities specialize for human language.
- To identify the critical developmental window for this specialization.
Main Methods:
- Studied infant responses to human and nonhuman primate vocalizations.
- Assessed infant listening preferences and object categorization abilities.
- Tracked developmental changes in auditory processing and cognitive links over the first 6 months of life.
Main Results:
- Infants initially show broad preference for primate vocalizations, tuning to human vocalizations by 3 months.
- Human vocalizations enhance object focus and categorization in infants.
- Nonhuman primate vocalizations also promote categorization at 3-4 months but lose this effect by 6 months.
Conclusions:
- The link between vocalizations and cognition emerges from a broad biological template that specializes over time.
- This developmental shift highlights the infant brain's specialization for processing human speech.
- Early specialization supports the foundational links between language and cognitive processes essential for meaning.
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