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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 27, 2026

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

Labels constructively shape object categories in 10-month-old infants.

Nadja Althaus¹, Gert Westermann²

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

|January 19, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Labels shape infant object categorization. Even preverbal infants (10-month-olds) use distinct labels to form two categories, unlike nonlinguistic sounds, revealing language

Keywords:

Categorization Cognitive development Eye-tracking Infancy Language acquisition Language and cognition

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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

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Published on: April 19, 2017

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

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Developmental Psychology
Linguistic Psychology

Background:

The influence of emerging language abilities on infants' object categorization remains a key question in developmental psychology.
Previous research on whether linguistic labels shape early perceptual categories in infants has yielded inconclusive evidence.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how linguistic labels, versus nonlinguistic sounds, affect category formation in 10-month-old infants.
To determine if labels can shape perceptual categories in preverbal infants.

Main Methods:

Familiarization of 80 10-month-old infants with morphed visual stimuli along a continuum.
Stimuli were presented in silence, with identical labels, with distinct labels, or with distinct nonlinguistic sounds.
Infants' categorization behavior was assessed based on their responses to the stimuli.

Main Results:

Infants formed a single category when stimuli were presented in silence or with the same label.
Infants divided stimuli into two categories when presented with distinct linguistic labels.
Distinct nonlinguistic sounds did not induce category division, with infants forming a single category.

Conclusions:

Linguistic labels interact with visual information to shape category formation in preverbal infants.
Labels possess the unique ability to influence and structure early perceptual categories.
Nonlinguistic sounds do not have the same category-shaping effect as linguistic labels.