The development of referential understanding.

Abstract

Previous research has shown that 14‐month‐olds are able to form arbitrary word‐object associations. [Werker et al. 1998).] However, merely associating words and objects is insufficient for the higher level concept that words “stand for” objects. In order to investigate at what age referential understanding emerges, we tested 14‐ and 17‐month‐olds on their ability to comprehend the correct meaning of a word when the word and object are presented separately from one another. We used an infant‐controlled version of the visual fixation procedure presented using HABIT X [Cohen et al. (2004).] Infants heard audio passages containing two target nouns. Subsequently, infants were presented with silent animations of four words—two with which they were familiarized (target) and two they had not heard during familiarization (non‐target). Looking time to target and non‐target animations were averaged and compared using paired t‐tests. The 14‐month‐olds looked longer at the target animations although this result was not significant. In order to identify at what age infants understand the referential relationship between words and objects, we are currently testing 17‐month‐olds on the same task. The results will be discussed in the context of emerging referential understanding of nouns during development.