How labels shape visuocortical processing in infants

The current study examined the extent to which labels shape visuocortical processing during the first year of life during a brief (~6-min) associative learning task. Images of computer-generated artificial objects were paired with either individual-level (e.g., Jimmy, Boris) or category-level labels (e.g., Hitchel) while event-related potentials were recorded in response to the onset of the visual stimulus in 6- (n = 41), 9- (n = 27), and 12-month-old (n = 28) infants. Analyses examined experience-dependent visuocortical changes within and across trials, label conditions, and ages. Overall, results demonstrate that infants deploy greater visuocortical resources during the first half of associative learning trials and to stimuli paired with category-level relative to individual-level labels. Waveform morphologies also differed between stimuli paired with individual- and category-level labels and across the age groups, with more complex deflections and amplitude differences between label type at 9- and 12-month-olds, but not 6-month-old infants. The present results highlight the importance of associative learning during infancy and suggest that category- versus individual-level labels differentially direct infant attention and visuocortical processing.