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Updated: Jul 22, 2025
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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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Objects in a social world: Infants' object representational capacity limits are shaped by objects' social relevance
Melissa M Kibbe1, Aimee E Stahl2
1Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States.
Advances in Child Development and Behavior
|July 22, 2023
Summary
Infants
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Social Cognition
- Infant Psychology
Background:
- Decades of research indicate limitations in infants' object representation abilities.
- Traditional methods often isolate objects, neglecting their real-world social context.
- Objects frequently function as social artifacts in infants' daily experiences.
Approach:
- This chapter examines the interplay between infants' object representation and social processing.
- It reviews evidence demonstrating how social factors influence representational limits.
- The focus is on understanding object representation within social contexts.
Key Points:
- Social content and context significantly alter infants' object representational limits.
- Infants' understanding of objects is deeply intertwined with social interactions.
- Ecologically valid assessments require considering the social relevance of objects.
Conclusions:
- Infants' object representation is more flexible than previously thought.
- Social factors are crucial for accurate estimations of early cognitive capacities.
- Future research should prioritize ecologically valid, socially embedded methodologies.
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