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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.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 17, 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

Semantic Specificity in One-Year-Olds' Word Comprehension.

Elika Bergelson^1,2, Richard Aslin¹

¹Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Center for Language Sciences.

Language Learning and Development : the Official Journal of the Society for Language Development

|December 5, 2017

Summary

One-year-olds understand familiar object words, but by two years, infants increasingly use semantic context to identify objects. This shows infant word knowledge sharpens over the second year.

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Feb 17, 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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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

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Cognitive Science
Linguistics

Background:

Infants
early word learning
semantic development

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate how infants process familiar nouns.
Determine how semantic knowledge develops in infants.
Examine age-related changes in object recognition based on word cues.

Main Methods:

Infants (12-20 months) viewed two-image displays.
Stimuli included familiar objects, novel objects, and spoken words (matching, related, or nonce).
Eye-gaze fixation was recorded to measure object recognition.

Main Results:

Infants reliably fixated referents on matching and nonce word trials.
Older infants (over 12 months) showed decreased attention to incorrect, related images.
Aged-based trend indicated increasing reliance on semantic fit for object identification.

Conclusions:

Infants' semantic representations are initially imprecise.
Word processing in infants transitions from general object attention to semantic specificity.
Semantic understanding and word knowledge refinement continue throughout the second year of life.