Abstract
In this experiment, we examined whether sensitivity to the relevance of object insides for the categorization of animate objects is in place around 10 months of age. Using an object examining paradigm, 10-month-old infants’ (N = 58) were familiarized to novel objects with varying outward appearances but shared insides in one of three groups: No cues, Eyes, and Cue control. During test trials, infants were presented with a novel in-category test object followed by an out-of-category test object. When objects were presented with animacy cues (i.e., Eyes), infants categorized the objects together. In contrast, when objects were presented without any added cues or when they were presented with a shared perceptual marker (Cue control, i.e., plastic spoons placed on top of the objects), infants showed no evidence of categorization. These results indicate that by 10 months of age, eyes signal to infants that objects share some kind of uniting commonality that may not be obvious or readily perceptually available.
Highlights
Well before they reach kindergarten, children have a well-developed understanding of the distinction between animates and inanimates
We examined whether an animacy marker would facilitate 10-month-old infants’ categorization of novel objects with shared insides
Infants were familiarized with novel objects that had different outward appearances, but shared similar internal features
Summary
Well before they reach kindergarten, children have a well-developed understanding of the distinction between animates and inanimates (for reviews see [1, 2]). Toddlers will extend novel words to artifacts based on shared shape but will extend novel words to animates based on both shape and texture, indicating that they shift their basis for naming according to the conceptual status of the object [11]. In this experiment, we examine the question of how animacy guides object categorization, focusing on whether animacy cues lead 10-month-olds to categorize objects based on similar insides. Diesendruck et al [16] demonstrated that
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call