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Do Novel Words Facilitate 18‐Month‐Olds’ Spatial Categorization?
Author(s) -
Casasola Marianella,
Bhagwat Jui
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01100.x
Subject(s) - categorization , psychology , vocabulary , noun , cognitive psychology , verb , object (grammar) , language development , spatial relation , habituation , communication , linguistics , developmental psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy , psychotherapist
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.