TY - JOUR
T1 - The importance of shape in early lexical learning
AU - Landau, Barbara
AU - Smith, Linda B.
AU - Jones, Susan S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by PH.5 grants ROIHD4YY and K04HDSSY to Linda Smith. by a Spencer Foundation Grant IO Barbam Landau. and by a grant from the National Foundation-March of Dimes-to Lila Gleitman and Barbara Landau. We wish to thank Lila Gleitman for her comments on an earlier draft. Thanks are also due to Rachel Dresner (Columbia University), Salma Abugidieri, and Carol McCord (Indiana University) for data collection, and to the parents, teachers, and children at the following nursery schools: in New York. Columbia Greenhouse; in Bloomington, Penny Lane. Cherry Hill, and the Children’s Learning Center. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Barbara Landau, Department of Psychology. Schermerhom Hall. Columbia University,
Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1988/7
Y1 - 1988/7
N2 - We ask if certain dimensions of perceptual similarity are weighted more heavily than others in determining word extension. The specific dimensions examined were shape, size, and texture. In four experiments, subjects were asked either to extend a novel count noun to new instances or, in a nonword classification task, to put together objects that go together. The subjects were 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and adults. The results of all four experiments indicate that 2- and 3-year-olds and adults all weight shape more heavily than they do size or texture. This observed emphasis on shape, however, depends on the age of the subject and the task. First, there is a developmental trend. The shape bias increases in strength and generality from 2 to 3 years of age and more markedly from early childhood to adulthood. Second, in young children, the shape bias is much stronger in word extension than in nonword classification tasks. These results suggest that the development of the shape bias originates in language learning-it reflects a fact about language-and does not stem from general perceptual processes.
AB - We ask if certain dimensions of perceptual similarity are weighted more heavily than others in determining word extension. The specific dimensions examined were shape, size, and texture. In four experiments, subjects were asked either to extend a novel count noun to new instances or, in a nonword classification task, to put together objects that go together. The subjects were 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and adults. The results of all four experiments indicate that 2- and 3-year-olds and adults all weight shape more heavily than they do size or texture. This observed emphasis on shape, however, depends on the age of the subject and the task. First, there is a developmental trend. The shape bias increases in strength and generality from 2 to 3 years of age and more markedly from early childhood to adulthood. Second, in young children, the shape bias is much stronger in word extension than in nonword classification tasks. These results suggest that the development of the shape bias originates in language learning-it reflects a fact about language-and does not stem from general perceptual processes.
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U2 - 10.1016/0885-2014(88)90014-7
DO - 10.1016/0885-2014(88)90014-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:18944382328
SN - 0885-2014
VL - 3
SP - 299
EP - 321
JO - Cognitive Development
JF - Cognitive Development
IS - 3
ER -