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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
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Exposure to multiple languages enhances communication skills in infancy
Zoe Liberman1, Amanda L Woodward1, Boaz Keysar1
1Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA.
Developmental Science
|March 23, 2016
Summary
Early multilingual exposure in infancy enhances infants' ability to understand others' perspectives. This suggests that even minimal exposure to multiple languages can boost crucial social communication skills from a young age.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Early multilingual exposure is linked to enhanced communication skills in children.
- The social benefits of multilingualism are not fully understood, especially in infancy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether social benefits of multilingual exposure emerge in infancy.
- To examine if infants with multilingual exposure demonstrate enhanced perspective-taking abilities in a communication task.
Main Methods:
- Sixteen-month-old infants participated in a communication task involving a speaker and two identical toys.
- One toy was mutually visible, while the other was hidden from the speaker's view.
- Infants' ability to understand the speaker's intended request for the mutually visible toy was assessed.
Main Results:
- Monolingual infants performed at chance level in identifying the requested toy.
- Infants with multilingual exposure reliably selected the toy the speaker requested.
- The degree of multilingual exposure did not correlate with performance, indicating minimal exposure is sufficient.
Conclusions:
- Multilingual exposure in infancy enhances infants' ability to understand a speaker's perspective.
- These findings suggest that the social benefits of multilingualism begin in early infancy.
- Even minimal exposure to multiple languages may foster essential communication skills.
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