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Related Experiment Videos

Keep trying!: Parental language predicts infants' persistence.

Kelsey Lucca1, Rachel Horton2, Jessica A Sommerville3

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Washington, USA; Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, USA.

Cognition
|July 21, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Parental praise focusing on effort, not traits, boosts infant persistence. This early language input significantly impacts a child's determination and learning from 18 months onward.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Language Acquisition

Background:

  • Infant persistence is crucial for learning across various domains.
  • Older children's persistence is influenced by effort-based praise, but this is less understood in infants.
  • Preliminary data suggests persistence-related language emerges early in children's environments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of parental linguistic input on infant persistence.
  • To examine the role of process praise and general persistence-focused language in 18-month-olds.
  • To determine if parental language effects persist without direct caregiver involvement.

Main Methods:

  • Observational study involving 18-month-old infants and their caregivers.
  • Two tasks: a free-play gear stacker and joint book reading.
Keywords:
Cognitive developmentInfancyLanguageLearningMotivationParent-child interactions

Related Experiment Videos

  • Measurement of parental language (process praise, persistence-focused language) and infant persistence.

    • Main Results:

    • Infants with more parental process praise and persistence-focused language showed greater persistence.
    • Parental use of process praise predicted infant persistence even when caregivers were uninvolved.
    • Caregiver self-reported persistence did not explain these findings.

    Conclusions:

    • Parental language, specifically effort-focused praise, is a significant predictor of infant persistence.
    • Linguistic input shapes persistence early in development, from 18 months of age.
    • The influence of parental language on persistence extends beyond direct caregiver interaction.