Infants' expectations about object label reference. |
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Authors: | Graham, Susan A. Baker, Rachel K. Poulin-Dubois, Diane |
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Abstract: | Examined whether infants at the early stages of lexical development were sensitive to the word-category linkage. In Exp 1, 39 16- to 19-mo-old infants were requested to match a target with either a basic-level or a thematic match, with or without a novel label. Stimuli were presented using the preferential looking paradigm. Infants in the Novel Label condition looked significantly longer at the basic-level match than infants in the No Label condition. In Exp 2, Ss were presented with a target, followed by a basic-level match and a superordinate-level match with or without a novel label. Again, infants in the Novel Label condition looked significantly longer at the basic-level match than infants in the No Label condition. Taken together, these findings indicate that infants initially assume that novel words label basic-level categories and thereby do honor the word-category linkage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
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