Infants' reliance on shape to generalize novel labels to animate and inanimate objects

Citation
Sa. Graham et D. Poulin-dubois, Infants' reliance on shape to generalize novel labels to animate and inanimate objects, J CHILD LAN, 26(2), 1999, pp. 295-320
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Psycology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE
ISSN journal
03050009 → ACNP
Volume
26
Issue
2
Year of publication
1999
Pages
295 - 320
Database
ISI
SICI code
0305-0009(199906)26:2<295:IROSTG>2.0.ZU;2-P
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to examine infants' reliance on object shape versus colour for word generalization to animate and inanimate objects. A total of seventy-three infants aged 1;4 to I;10 were taught labels for eith er novel vehicles or novel animals using a preferential looking procedure ( Experiment I) or an interactive procedure (Experiment 2). The results of bo th experiments indicated that infants limited their word generalization to those exemplars that shared shape similarity with the original referent for both animate and inanimate objects. These findings indicate that a strong reliance on shape is present earlier than previously shown. In Experiment 2 , reliance on shape to generalize novel words did not vary as a function of vocabulary size. Thus reliance on shape versus colour for word generalizat ion does not appear to increase in strength as a function of word learning during late infancy.