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Cited by 368Categorization, perception, and languageChild and Animal Learning DevelopmentLanguage Development and Disorders

Categorization in 3- and 4-Month-Old Infants: An Advantage of Words Over Tones

Open access
Ferry, Alissa L, Hespos, Susan J, Waxman, Sandra R·2010·Child Development
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01408.xPMC PMC2910389
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Abstract

Neonates prefer human speech to other nonlinguistic auditory stimuli. However, it remains an open question whether there are any conceptual consequences of words on object categorization in infants younger than 6 months. The current study examined the influence of words and tones on object categorization in forty-six 3- to 4-month-old infants. Infants were familiarized to different exemplars of a category accompanied by either a labeling phrase or a tone sequence. In test, infants viewed novel category and new within-category exemplars. Infants who heard labeling phrases provided evidence of categorization at test while infants who heard tone sequences did not, suggesting that infants as young as 3 months of age treat words and tones differently vis-à-vis object categorization.

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  • Even infants routinely use the phonological form of words to make conceptual inferences about novel objects that share little perceptual similarity, and adults are believed to do the same.

    “In fact, even infants routinely use the phonological form of words to make conceptual inferences about novel objects that share little perceptual similarity (Dewar & Xu 2009; Ferry et al. 2010; Xu 2002) and we believe that adults do the same thing.”

    From The brain basis of emotion: a meta-analytic review (2012) · cites this paper as Ferry et al. 2010

    The Results (page unavailable) report that 3- and 4-month-olds hearing labeling phrases showed evidence of object categorization, whereas those hearing tones did not. But the Discussion (page unavailable) suggests that speech may promote attention and says the relevant auditory features remain unknown; it does not establish that infants use words’ phonological form to infer a shared category for objects with little perceptual similarity. The statement about adults is the citing authors’ belief, not a finding attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Authors
Ferry, A. L., Hespos, S. J., & Waxman, S. R.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author
Ferry, Alissa L
ORCID
Venue
Child Development
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2010-03-01
Volume
81
Issue
2
Pages
472-479
ISSN
  • 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-8624
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01408.x
PMC
PMC2910389
OpenAlex
W2160997109
Cited by
368
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 92 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 14
FWCI
16.33
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Child Development (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD030410, R01HD030410)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
Keywords
object classification, infant language development, speech tone, early word learning, novel category recognition
MeSH terms
Attention, Psychology, Child, Choice Behavior, Color Perception, Female, Generalization, Psychological, Humans, Infant, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Pitch Perception, Semantics, Speech Perception, Transfer, Psychology, Binomial Distribution, Comprehension

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