The Origins of Concept Formation: Object Sorting and Object Preference in Early Infancy

Starkey, David J.

doi:10.2307/1129166

Cited by 73 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…One object from each class was placed on the table, and the child was allowed to place the other six objects. As in comparable studies, all age groups engaged in some similarity-based grouping behavior (Nelson, 1973a;Ricciuti, 1965;Starkey, 1981), with younger infants producing simple one-class groupings (e.g., making a row of plates while ignoring the blocks) and older infants often producing two-class groupings (e.g., making a row of plates and a row of blocks), a process that requires comparing items to determine similarity and difference.…”

Section: Similarity In Perceptual Domainsmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…Although this line of study properly belongs to the category of "parallel development" (since there is no telling which direction of influence applies) we have included it here because, like Premack's work, it bears on the relation between language about similarity and similarity processing. As discussed earlier, in the sequential touching task infants are given objects drawn from two identity classes, and their spontaneous touching and grouping patterns are observed (Nelson, 1973a;Ricciuti, 1965;Starkey, 1981). Sugarman (1982) found that 12-month-olds tended to group objects to form one identity group, while 24-to 36-month-olds tended to form two identity groups.…”

Section: Effects Of Language On the Relational Shiftmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Assessing the similarity perceptions of young infants poses something of a challenge. One method that has proved successful is that of sequential touching, in which the order of spontaneous manipulations of objects is observed (Nelson, 1973a;Ricciuti, 1965;Starkey, 1981). Infants as young as 12 months will sequentially touch or group identical objects.…”

Section: Similarity In Perceptual Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Language and the career of similarity

Gentner¹,

Rattermann

1991

Perspectives on Language and Thought

329

389

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Section: Similarity In Perceptual Domainsmentioning

confidence: 54%

Section: Effects Of Language On the Relational Shiftmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Similarity In Perceptual Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Language and the career of similarity

Gentner¹,

Rattermann

1991

Perspectives on Language and Thought

329

389

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…For this reason, and to determine whether touching runs of three or four objects from the same category occurred by chance, a second measure of run length was carried out. In accordance with the analyses used in previous categorizing studies, infants who systematically touched objects from one category were termed single categorizers, and infants who systematically touched objects from both categories were termed dual categorizers.t The criterion for a categorizing run was the same as that used in previous research (e.g., Mandler et al, 1991 ;Starkey, 1981;Sugarman, 1983 ). A Monte Carlo program was used to determine the probability of occurrence of single and dual categorizing runs in 10,000 random draws.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Infants' use of object parts in early categorization.

Rakison¹,

Butterworth²

1998

Developmental Psychology

203

140

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Two experiments involving object-manipulation tasks were performed to examine whether 1-to 2-year-olds form superordinate-like categories by attending to object parts. In Study 1, 14-, 18-, and 22-month-olds were tested with contrasts of animals, furniture, insects, and vehicles. Fourteen-and 18-month-olds behaved systematically toward categories with different parts (legs or wheels) but not toward categories with matching parts (legs or legs). In Study 2, infants were tested with novel animals and vehicles generated by removing or attaching legs or wheels. In the absence of part differences, all three age groups failed to form superordinate categories. The two younger groups chose to categorize by parts (i.e., legs or wheels) rather than by category membership (animal or vehicle). The results suggest a perceptual basis for categorization whereby infants form dynamic categories, on-line, that are based on the characteristics of the input.It is a common assumption that the categories formed in early childhood fall into one of the three hierarchical classes proposed by Rosch and her colleagues (e.g., Mervis & Rosch, 1981;Rosch, Mervis, Gray, Johnson, & Boyes-Braem, 1976). According to Rosch, the categories that are developmentally primary are at the basic level, with categories developing subsequently at the more general, superordinate level. This developmental sequence is thought to occur because basic-level categories have a high level of within-category similarity and between-category dissimilarity, whereas superordinate categories have low within-category similarity. Thus, it is held that infants form categories of objects that are alike, such as dogs, cats, cars, and chairs, more easily than they form categories that include objects that vary in appearance, such as animals, vehicles, and fumiture. Rosch (1978) referred to these categories as taxonomies, by which she meant that their members are the same kind of thing or are "related to one another by means of class inclusion" (p. 27).A corollary for this assumption is that infants require knowledge beyond information given in the perceptual input to form David H. Rakison and George E. Butterworth, Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, England.This work was submitted by David H. Rakison in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the D.Phil. in psychology at the University of Sussex. We express thanks to Colin Crook and Tony Stubbens for their help in video recording and stimulus creation. We also thank Alexandra Campbell for her help with coding and Brenda Todd for her input in this research and comments on a draft of this article.The results of Experiment 1 were presented at the Meeting of the European Science Foundation, San Felui de Guixols, Spain, April 1996, and the results of Experiment 2 were presented at the Annual Meeting of the British Psychological Society Conference, Brighton, England, April 1995.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to David H. Rakison, who is now at the Department of Psychology, Mezes 3...

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“…Developmental studies suggest that there are important changes in children's tendency to sort objects into groups between one and two years of age (Ricciuti, 1965;Sugarman, 1983;Starkey, 1981). We hypothesized that there might be a relation between this cognitive change and the onset of the «naming explosion» -the first sharp increase in children's naming vocabulary that typically occurs at about 1.5 years of age.…”

Section: On Linking Infant Sensory-motor Development and Language Devmentioning

confidence: 97%

Imitation, objects, tools, and the rudiments of language in human ontogeny

Meltzoff

1988

Hum. Evol.

113

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Human beings are imitative generalists. We can immediately imitate a wide range of behaviors with great facility, whether they be vocal maneuvers, body postures, or actions on objects. The ontogeny of this skill has been an enduring question in developmental psychology. Classical theory holds that the ability to imitate facial gestures is a milestone that is passed at about one year. Before this time infants are thought to lack the perceptual-cognitive sophistication necessary to match a gesture they can see with one they cannot see themselves perform. A second developmental milestone is the capacity for deferred imitation, i.e. imitation of an absent model. This is said to emerge at about 18 months, in close synchrony with other higher-order activities such as object permanence and tool use, as part of a general cognitive shift from a purely sensorymotor level of functioning to one that allows language. Research suggests that the imitative capacity of young infants has been underestimated. Human infants are capable of imitating facial gestures at birth, with infants less than one day old manifesting this skill. Moreover recent experiments have established deferred imitation well before the predicted age of 18 months. Studies discussed here show that 9-month-olds can duplicate acts after a delay of 24 hours, and that 14-month-olds can retain and duplicate as many as five actions over a 1-week delay. These new findings re-raise questions about the relation between nonverbal cognitive development and language development: What aspects, if any, of these two domains are linked? A hypothesis is delineated that predicts certain very specific relations between particular cognitive and semantic achievements during the one-word stage, and data are reported supporting this hypothesis. Specifically, relations are reported between: (a) the development of object permanence and the use of words encoding disappearance, (b) means-ends understanding (as manifest in tool use) and words encoding success and failure, and (c) categorization behavior and the onset of the naming explosion. This research on human ontogeny suggests close and highly specific links between aspects of early language and thought. Keywords imitation; language; object permanence; infants; cognitive development In addition to language, one of the hallmarks of Homo sapiens is a proclivity for imitation, a trait that enables essentially no-trial learning. Humans depend upon and profit from imitation more than any other species. Many of the skills, behavior patterns, cultural rituals, and traditions exhibited by adults are acquired at least in part through imitation and not the maturation of genetically specified motor programs, trial and error, or independent invention.

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The Origins of Concept Formation: Object Sorting and Object Preference in Early Infancy

Cited by 73 publications

References 0 publications

Language and the career of similarity

Language and the career of similarity

Infants' use of object parts in early categorization.

Imitation, objects, tools, and the rudiments of language in human ontogeny

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