Abstract
Recent studies have provided evidence that labeling can influence the outcome of infants’ visual categorization. However, what exactly happens during learning remains unclear. Using eye-tracking, we examined infants’ attention to object parts during learning. Our analysis of looking behaviors during learning provide insights going beyond merely observing the learning outcome. Both labeling and non-labeling phrases facilitated category formation in 12-month-olds but not 8-month-olds (Experiment 1). Non-linguistic sounds did not produce this effect (Experiment 2). Detailed analyses of infants’ looking patterns during learning revealed that only infants who heard labels exhibited a rapid focus on the object part successive exemplars had in common. Although other linguistic stimuli may also be beneficial for learning, it is therefore concluded that labels have a unique impact on categorization.
Highlights
In recent years, there has been an intriguing debate focusing on the question of the possible interactions between labeling and categorization in infancy
Only 12-month-olds who had received speech input successfully formed a category over the Timbo stimuli that allowed them to recognize a novel part substituted for either the claw or shell. While this confirmed the hypothesis that labels facilitate categorization, the finding that a similar effect can be achieved by phrases not containing any novel labels was unexpected
This contrasts with previous research (e.g., [15]) in which it was reported that facilitation of categorization was specific to novel labels
Summary
There has been an intriguing debate focusing on the question of the possible interactions between labeling and categorization in infancy. By the end of their first year, infants have both sophisticated language processing skills (e.g., [1], [2], [3], [4]) and categorization abilities [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11] This raises the question of what role language plays in shaping category formation. In the 20th century, the idea of linguistic determinism [13] arose as the most extreme form of an impact of language on cognition While this extreme position has, on balance, not been supported by empirical evidence, the possibility of interactions between language and object-processing, in children and infants, has recently received support [14], [15], [16], [17]
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