Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants?
Marie T. Balaban*, Sandra R. Waxman
Previous research reveals that novel words highlight object categories for preschoolers and infants as young as 12 months. Three experiments extend these findings to 9-month-olds. Infants were familiarized to slides of animals (e.g., rabbits). Infants in the Word condition heard infant-directed word phrases ("a rabbit") and infants in the Tone condition heard tones. During familiarization, infants' visual fixation was enhanced on trials with sounds (either words or tones), relative to silent trials. On test trials, a new exemplar from the familiar category (e.g., rabbit) was paired with a novel animal (e.g., pig). Infants in the Word condition showed greater attention to novelty than those in the Tone condition. A third group of infants who heard content-filtered words responded similarly to infants in the Word condition. Implications of the facultative effects of words and content-filtered words on object categorization are discussed within a framework describing infants' emerging appreciation of language over the first year of life.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1996.2332
10.1006/jecp.1996.2332
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Balaban, M. T., & Waxman, S. R. (1997). Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 64(1), 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1996.2332
Balaban, Marie T. ; Waxman, Sandra R. / Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants?. In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 1997 ; Vol. 64, No. 1. pp. 3-26.
@article{222639c47a204d7a8fb1323f79622b05,
title = "Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants?",
abstract = "Previous research reveals that novel words highlight object categories for preschoolers and infants as young as 12 months. Three experiments extend these findings to 9-month-olds. Infants were familiarized to slides of animals (e.g., rabbits). Infants in the Word condition heard infant-directed word phrases ({"}a rabbit{"}) and infants in the Tone condition heard tones. During familiarization, infants' visual fixation was enhanced on trials with sounds (either words or tones), relative to silent trials. On test trials, a new exemplar from the familiar category (e.g., rabbit) was paired with a novel animal (e.g., pig). Infants in the Word condition showed greater attention to novelty than those in the Tone condition. A third group of infants who heard content-filtered words responded similarly to infants in the Word condition. Implications of the facultative effects of words and content-filtered words on object categorization are discussed within a framework describing infants' emerging appreciation of language over the first year of life.",
author = "Balaban, {Marie T.} and Waxman, {Sandra R.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank the infants and parents for their participation and we acknowledge the contributions of our student research assistants. We thank Robert Rosenthal and Nalini Ambady for use and assistance with the content-filtering device for Experiment 3. We also acknowledge the helpful comments of the reviewers. This research was partially supported by grants from the William F. Milton Fund at the Harvard Medical School, the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and by NIMH Grant R03-MH51131 (to M.T.B.) and by NIH Grant HD28730 (to S.R.W.). Portions of these studies were reported at the 1992 International Conference on Infant Studies, Miami, FL, and at the 1995 Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Marie T. Balaban, Department of Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street/Ames Hall, Baltimore, MD 21218.",
doi = "10.1006/jecp.1996.2332",
journal = "Journal of Experimental Child Psychology",
Balaban, MT & Waxman, SR 1997, 'Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants?', Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1996.2332
Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants? / Balaban, Marie T.; Waxman, Sandra R.
In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Vol. 64, No. 1, 01.1997, p. 3-26.
T1 - Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants?
AU - Balaban, Marie T.
AU - Waxman, Sandra R.
N1 - Funding Information: We thank the infants and parents for their participation and we acknowledge the contributions of our student research assistants. We thank Robert Rosenthal and Nalini Ambady for use and assistance with the content-filtering device for Experiment 3. We also acknowledge the helpful comments of the reviewers. This research was partially supported by grants from the William F. Milton Fund at the Harvard Medical School, the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and by NIMH Grant R03-MH51131 (to M.T.B.) and by NIH Grant HD28730 (to S.R.W.). Portions of these studies were reported at the 1992 International Conference on Infant Studies, Miami, FL, and at the 1995 Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Marie T. Balaban, Department of Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street/Ames Hall, Baltimore, MD 21218.
N2 - Previous research reveals that novel words highlight object categories for preschoolers and infants as young as 12 months. Three experiments extend these findings to 9-month-olds. Infants were familiarized to slides of animals (e.g., rabbits). Infants in the Word condition heard infant-directed word phrases ("a rabbit") and infants in the Tone condition heard tones. During familiarization, infants' visual fixation was enhanced on trials with sounds (either words or tones), relative to silent trials. On test trials, a new exemplar from the familiar category (e.g., rabbit) was paired with a novel animal (e.g., pig). Infants in the Word condition showed greater attention to novelty than those in the Tone condition. A third group of infants who heard content-filtered words responded similarly to infants in the Word condition. Implications of the facultative effects of words and content-filtered words on object categorization are discussed within a framework describing infants' emerging appreciation of language over the first year of life.
AB - Previous research reveals that novel words highlight object categories for preschoolers and infants as young as 12 months. Three experiments extend these findings to 9-month-olds. Infants were familiarized to slides of animals (e.g., rabbits). Infants in the Word condition heard infant-directed word phrases ("a rabbit") and infants in the Tone condition heard tones. During familiarization, infants' visual fixation was enhanced on trials with sounds (either words or tones), relative to silent trials. On test trials, a new exemplar from the familiar category (e.g., rabbit) was paired with a novel animal (e.g., pig). Infants in the Word condition showed greater attention to novelty than those in the Tone condition. A third group of infants who heard content-filtered words responded similarly to infants in the Word condition. Implications of the facultative effects of words and content-filtered words on object categorization are discussed within a framework describing infants' emerging appreciation of language over the first year of life.
U2 - 10.1006/jecp.1996.2332
DO - 10.1006/jecp.1996.2332
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Balaban MT, Waxman SR. Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 1997 Jan;64(1):3-26. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1996.2332