Do Novel Words Facilitate 18-Month-Olds’ Spatial Categorization?

• Autores: Marianella Casasola, Jui Bhagwat
• Localización: Child development, ISSN 0009-3920, Vol. 78, Nº. 6, 2007, págs. 1818-1829
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Eighteen-month-olds’ spatial categorization was tested when hearing a novel spatial word. Infants formed an abstract categorical representation of support (i.e., placing 1 object on another) when hearing a novel spatial particle during habituation but not when viewing the events in silence. Infants with a productive spatial vocabulary did not discriminate the support relation when hearing the same novel word as a count noun. However, infants who were not yet producing spatial words did attend to the support relation when presented with the novel count noun. The results indicate that 18-month-olds can use a novel particle (possibly assisted by a familiar verb) to facilitate their spatial categorization but that the specificity of this effect varies with infants’ acquisition of spatial language.