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Nineteen‐Month‐Olds' Understanding of the Conventionality of Object Labels Versus Desires
Author(s) -
Graham Susan A.,
Stock Hayli,
Henderson Annette M. E.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1207/s15327078in0903_5
Subject(s) - referent , psychology , object (grammar) , comprehension , task (project management) , word (group theory) , cognitive psychology , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy , management , economics
We assessed 19‐month‐olds' appreciation of the conventional nature of object labels versus desires. Infants played a finding game with an experimenter who stated her intention to find the referent of a novel word (word group), to find an object she wanted (desire group), or simply to look in a box (control group). A 2nd experimenter then administered a comprehension task to assess infants' tendency to extend information to a 2nd person who was not present at the time of learning. Results indicate that infants chose the target object when the 2nd experimenter asked for the referent of the novel label but not when she requested the referent of her desire. These findings demonstrate that 19‐month‐olds understand that words are conventional, but desires are not.