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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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Does Human Touch Facilitate Object Categorization in 6-to-9-Month-Old Infants?
Girija Kadlaskar1, Sandra Waxman2, Amanda Seidl1
1Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
Brain Sciences
|December 9, 2020
Summary
Touch cues aid infant object categorization. This study found that 6- to 9-month-old infants successfully formed object categories when familiarization images were accompanied by touch, but not when they were not.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Infant Perception
Background:
- Infants develop object categorization skills within the first year of life.
- Auditory information influences infant categorization by 3 months.
- The role of tactile input in early categorization remains largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether tactile information, delivered alongside category members, supports object categorization in infants.
- To determine if touch cues enhance the ability of infants to form object categories.
Main Methods:
- A within-subjects design was employed with 6- to 9-month-old infants.
- Infants participated in an object categorization task under two conditions: touch-cue and no-cue.
- Familiarization involved images presented with or without precisely-timed light touches from caregivers.
Main Results:
- Infants in the touch-cue condition successfully formed object categories.
- Infants in the no-cue condition did not form categories.
- This difference indicates a significant effect of tactile stimulation on categorization.
Conclusions:
- Tactile information plays a crucial role in supporting object categorization in infants.
- This study provides the first empirical evidence for the contribution of touch to early categorization.
- Findings suggest multimodal sensory integration is important for cognitive development in infancy.
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