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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 25, 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

Infants preferentially approach and explore the unexpected.

Zi L Sim¹, Fei Xu¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.

The British Journal of Developmental Psychology

|August 10, 2017

Summary

Infants explore unexpected events, showing a link between looking time and approach behaviors. This suggests 13-month-olds actively seek new information to drive their development.

Keywords:

expectancy violation exploration looking time

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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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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

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Area of Science:

Developmental psychology
Infant cognition

Background:

Violation-of-expectation (VOE) studies show infants look longer at unexpected events.
Limited research exists on whether infants also approach and explore these unexpected events.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between infants' looking times and their approach behaviors.
To determine if infants preferentially explore sources that violate their expectations.

Main Methods:

Utilized the violation-of-expectation (VOE) method.
Employed a crawling paradigm to observe approach and exploration behaviors in 13-month-old infants.

Main Results:

Demonstrated a strong correspondence between infants' looking time and their approach behaviors.
13-month-old infants were found to preferentially explore sources of unexpected events.

Conclusions:

Infants' looking behavior aligns with their exploratory actions.
Expectancy violations, even those not related to core knowledge, can drive infant exploration and learning.