Abstract
The ease with which young children learn object nouns suggests that they possess strategies to identify properties critical to lexical category membership. In previous work, young children used a same-shape criterion to extend new count nouns. The present research tested the generality of this shape bias. 2- and 3-year-olds were asked either to extend a novel count noun to new instances, or to choose unnamed objects to go together. The objects varied in shape, size, and texture. For half of the subjects, the objects had eyes--a property strongly associated with certain material kinds. If young children know this association, they should attend to texture as well as shape in classifying objects with eyes. With named objects only, both 2- and 3-year-old children classified eyeless objects by shape and objects with eyes by both shape and texture. The results suggest that very young children possess considerable knowledge about conditional relations between kinds of perceptual properties. Knowledge of such conditional relations may aid children in forming new categories and thus in discovering new word meanings.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 499-516 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Child Development |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| State | Published - Jun 1991 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychology(all)
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
Cite this
Object properties and knowledge in early lexical learning. / Jones, S. S.; Smith, L. B.; Landau, Barbara.
In: Child Development, Vol. 62, No. 3, 06.1991, p. 499-516.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Object properties and knowledge in early lexical learning.
AU - Jones, S. S.
AU - Smith, L. B.
AU - Landau, Barbara
PY - 1991/6
Y1 - 1991/6
N2 - The ease with which young children learn object nouns suggests that they possess strategies to identify properties critical to lexical category membership. In previous work, young children used a same-shape criterion to extend new count nouns. The present research tested the generality of this shape bias. 2- and 3-year-olds were asked either to extend a novel count noun to new instances, or to choose unnamed objects to go together. The objects varied in shape, size, and texture. For half of the subjects, the objects had eyes--a property strongly associated with certain material kinds. If young children know this association, they should attend to texture as well as shape in classifying objects with eyes. With named objects only, both 2- and 3-year-old children classified eyeless objects by shape and objects with eyes by both shape and texture. The results suggest that very young children possess considerable knowledge about conditional relations between kinds of perceptual properties. Knowledge of such conditional relations may aid children in forming new categories and thus in discovering new word meanings.
AB - The ease with which young children learn object nouns suggests that they possess strategies to identify properties critical to lexical category membership. In previous work, young children used a same-shape criterion to extend new count nouns. The present research tested the generality of this shape bias. 2- and 3-year-olds were asked either to extend a novel count noun to new instances, or to choose unnamed objects to go together. The objects varied in shape, size, and texture. For half of the subjects, the objects had eyes--a property strongly associated with certain material kinds. If young children know this association, they should attend to texture as well as shape in classifying objects with eyes. With named objects only, both 2- and 3-year-old children classified eyeless objects by shape and objects with eyes by both shape and texture. The results suggest that very young children possess considerable knowledge about conditional relations between kinds of perceptual properties. Knowledge of such conditional relations may aid children in forming new categories and thus in discovering new word meanings.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0026179199&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
C2 - 1914622
AN - SCOPUS:0026179199
VL - 62
SP - 499
EP - 516
JO - Child Development
JF - Child Development
SN - 0009-3920
IS - 3
ER -