Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 6, 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
Are Nouns Learned Before Verbs? Infants Provide Insight into a Longstanding Debate
Sandra Waxman1, Xiaolan Fu, Sudha Arunachalam
1Department of Psychology, Northwestern University.
Abstract:
For decades, a spirited debate has existed over whether infants' remarkable capacity to learn words is shaped primarily by universal features of human language or by specific featuers of the particulare native language they are acquiring. A strong focus for this debate has been a well-documented difference in early word learning: Infants' success in learning verbs lags behind their success in learning nouns.. In this review, we articulate both sides of the debate and summarize new cross-linguistic evidence from infants that underscores the role of universal features and begins to clarify the impact of distinctly different languages on early language and conceptual development.
Related Concept Videos
The Nativist Approach
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...
Introduction to Learning
In contrast to learned behaviors, unlearned behaviors such as crying, sexual...
Observational Learning
Language and Cognition
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory

