Young children’s extension of novel labels to novel animate items in three testing conditions

Abstract

The present research explores young children’s extension of novel labels to novel animate items. Three experiments were performed by means of the intermodal preferential looking (IPL) paradigm. In Experiment 1, after repeated exposure to novel word—object associations, 24- and 36-month-olds extend novel labels on the basis of shape similarity, in a task that pits a match in shape against a match in color. Experiment 2 finds 24-month-olds’ rapid reliance on shape, when introducing simplified trials that required identifying a match in shape or color separately. Experiment 3 reassesses young children’s ability to weigh up two perceptual cues, but in a condition in which the standard item remains visible, demonstrating 18- and 24-month-olds’ use of shape to extend novel labels. In contrast to previous research reporting an early shape bias mainly for inanimate items, this paper reveals that young children also consider shape to be a relevant cue to generalize novel labels to novel animate items. However, memory and processing demands appear to be crucial in the early ability to use shape information to extend novel labels to novel animate stimuli.