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Updated: Jan 1, 2026
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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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The Acquisition of Modal Concepts
Brian P Leahy1, Susan E Carey1
1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
|December 25, 2019
Summary
Infants possess innate abilities to represent possibilities, contrary to previous beliefs. This study differentiates between symbolic modal representations and simpler minimal representations of possibility.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Human cognition involves representing propositions as accepted, rejected, or merely possible.
- The developmental origin of representing possibility is debated: innate or language-dependent.
Purpose of the Study:
- To resolve the conflict between infant and preschooler abilities in managing possibilities.
- To differentiate between symbolic modal representations and minimal representations of possibility.
Main Methods:
- Reviewing existing research on preverbal infants' and preschoolers' handling of possibilities.
- Analyzing the distinction between modal and minimal representations of possibility.
Main Results:
- Preverbal infants demonstrate complex management of possibilities.
- Preschoolers appear to manage possibilities less effectively.
- The conflict is resolved by distinguishing symbolic modal representations from non-symbolic minimal representations.
Conclusions:
- The ability to represent possibility is not solely dependent on language acquisition.
- Infants possess sophisticated ways of representing possibilities, challenging prior assumptions.
- Distinguishing representation types clarifies developmental trajectories of modal cognition.
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