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Updated: Jun 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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Developmental origin of a language-cognition interface in infants: Gateway to advancing core knowledge?
1Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USAhttps://psychology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core/profiles/sandra-waxman.htmlwww.childdevelopment.northwestern.edu.
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|June 27, 2024
Summary
Infants as young as three months link language and core cognition. This early connection dynamically develops, potentially enabling abstract thought and representation acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Spelke's proposal necessitates a clearer definition of language's role in early cognitive development.
- Existing research indicates a nascent connection between language and cognition in infancy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the precise timing and nature of the link between language and core cognition in early development.
- To explore how this link serves as a foundation for acquiring abstract conceptual capacities.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal observation of infant cognitive and linguistic development.
- Analysis of behavioral and neural correlates of early language exposure and cognitive tasks.
Main Results:
- Evidence suggests infants establish a link between language and core cognition by three months of age.
- This connection demonstrates dynamic unfolding throughout early development.
Conclusions:
- The precocious link between language and cognition in infancy provides a critical entry point for developing higher-order abstract thought.
- Refining our understanding of this link is crucial for cognitive development theories.
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