Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
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...

Observational Learning

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's observational learning, also known as imitation or modeling, occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior. It is a quicker process than operant conditioning. A well-known example is the Bobo doll study, where children who saw an adult acting aggressively towards the doll were more likely to act aggressively when left alone, compared to those who observed a nonaggressive adult. Many psychologists view observational learning as a form of latent learning...

Imprinting

Imprinting

Behavioral imprinting is observed in some newborn animals and occurs when they develop strong and specific attachments to another animal (usually a parent) following brief, early-life exposures. Offspring imprint onto parents within a brief period after birth or hatching; this time window is called the critical period. Once imprinting occurs, the bond established between the parents and their offspring is usually long-lasting.

The Nativist Approach

The Nativist Approach

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...

Associative Learning

Associative Learning

Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning.
Classical conditioning, also known...

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same authorSame journal

Corrigendum to 'Consonant, vowel, and tone cues in early wordform recognition: Evidence from Cantonese-learning infants' [Cognition 275 (2026) 106624].

Cognition·2026

Same author

An Investigation of the Phonetic Variation of the Word-Initial /l/ and /n/ Across Regional Varieties of Mandarin.

Language and speech·2026

Same author

Consonant, vowel, and tone cues in early wordform recognition: Evidence from Cantonese-learning infants.

Cognition·2026

Same author

The sound-of-words model: A developmental perspective of phonolexical acquisition.

Advances in child development and behavior·2025

Same author

Sustaining Language Acquisition Research in Africa: A Commentary on Scaff et al. (2025).

Developmental science·2025

Same author

Difficulties in Nonadjacent Dependency Learning in French-Learning Toddlers.

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR·2025

Same journal

Investigating the origins of partisanship: What motivates children to preferentially endorse their ingroups' claims?

Cognition·2026

Same journal

People make graded judgments about the inconceivable.

Cognition·2026

Same journal

The self as an image: Appearance and belief in visual representations of one's own face.

Cognition·2026

Same journal

Identifying distinct sources of whole number interference in children's decimal comparison: the role of numerical magnitude and inhibitory control.

Cognition·2026

Same journal

Evidence for abstract spatial concept learning in young animals.

Cognition·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 30, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Object labeling influences infant phonetic learning and generalization.

H Henny Yeung¹, Thierry Nazzi¹

¹CNRS (Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242) & Université Paris Descartes, Paris Sorbonne Cité, France.

|May 10, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Infants can learn abstract phonetic patterns, like lexical stress, from consistent object labeling by parents. This learning generalizes to new words, aiding native language acquisition.

Keywords:

Infant Lexical stress Prosody Speech perception Word learning

More Related Videos

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

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

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 30, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

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

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Developmental Psychology
Phonetics

Background:

Languages use phonetic contrasts, such as lexical stress, to differentiate word meanings.
Infants acquire native language phonetic contrasts within their first year, utilizing parental speech cues.
Object labeling by parents may serve as a cue for infants to learn phonetic contrasts.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether phonetic learning from object labeling is abstract and generalizes to new contexts.
To examine the role of consistent object labeling in the acquisition of prosodic cues, specifically lexical stress, in infants.
To determine if infants can generalize phonetic learning from consistent versus inconsistent word labels.

Main Methods:

10-month-old infants were divided into two groups: one received consistent object labels contrasting in lexical stress, the other received inconsistent labels.
Stress discrimination was measured using novel words composed of new syllables in a test phase.
Comparison of discrimination abilities between infants trained with consistent and inconsistent labeling.

Main Results:

Infants trained with consistently contrastive labels demonstrated earlier stress discrimination compared to those trained with inconsistent labels.
The findings suggest that phonetic learning, specifically in the prosodic domain, can be abstract.
Consistent object labeling facilitates the generalization of phonetic learning in infants.

Conclusions:

Phonetic learning from object labeling can generalize to new phonetic contexts.
Consistent parental object labeling is an effective mechanism for infants to learn abstract sound properties of their native language.
This study provides insight into how infants acquire the complex sound system of their native language.