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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...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 2, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
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Experience with malleable objects influences shape-based object individuation by infants.

Rebecca J Woods1, Jena Schuler2

  • 1Department of Human Development and Family Science, North Dakota State University, USA.

Infant Behavior & Development
|February 25, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Infants learn to recognize objects, but recent experiences shape their reasoning. Exploring rigid objects helps infants use shape for individuation, unlike malleable objects.

Keywords:
Infant cognitionLearningObject featuresObject individuationShape

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Cognitive science
  • Infant perception

Background:

  • Infants' object recognition and discrimination abilities improve significantly in the first two years.
  • Object exploration experiences influence infants' physical reasoning and feature attention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if infants' observations of object feature stability (rigid vs. malleable) affect their use of shape for object individuation.
  • To determine how recent experiences modify infants' attention to object features.

Main Methods:

  • 8.5-month-old infants were shown objects with varying shape stability (rigid or malleable).
  • Infants' subsequent use of shape as a basis for individuating two successively viewed objects was assessed.

Main Results:

  • Infants who explored rigid objects used shape differences for individuation.
  • Infants who explored malleable objects did not use shape differences for individuation.

Conclusions:

  • Infants' attention to object features, like shape, is influenced by recent experiences with object stability.
  • This suggests infants' physical reasoning can be readily modified by their interactions with objects.