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They call it like they see it: spontaneous naming and attention to shape
Author(s) -
Samuelson Larissa K.,
Smith Linda B.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00405.x
Subject(s) - psychology , object (grammar) , generalization , vocabulary , cued speech , perception , noun , set (abstract data type) , cognitive psychology , lexico , language development , task (project management) , spontaneous recovery , linguistics , developmental psychology , cognition , computer science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , management , neuroscience , economics , programming language
Two experiments explore children's spontaneous labeling of novel objects as a method to study early lexical access. The experiments also provide new evidence on children's attention to object shape when labeling objects. In Experiment 1, the spontaneous productions of 21 23‐ to 28‐month‐olds (mean 26;28) shown a set of novel, unnamed objects were analyzed both in terms of the specific words said and, via adult judgments, their likely perceptual basis. We found that children's spontaneous names were cued by the perceptual feature of shape. Experiment 2 examines the relation between spontaneous productions, name generalizations in a structured task, and vocabulary development in a group of children between 17 and 24 months of age (mean 21;6). Results indicate that object shape plays an important role in both spontaneous productions and novel noun generalization, but contrary to current hypotheses, children may name objects by shape from the earliest points of productive vocabulary development and this tendency may not be lexically specific.