Before first words: Infants' ability to map words to goals

This study investigated preverbal infants' ability to associate novel words with referent objects. Forty-eight infants, aged 9 and 12 months, repeatedly observed an actor utter a novel word and then grasp one of two objects during the training trials. In the test trial, both age groups looked at the target object when she repeated the same word and directed their gaze to the non-target object when she uttered a different word. These results provide evidence that the foundations of novel word-object associations emerge before the onset of verbal communication.