Abstract
Labeling promotes infants' object categorization even when labels are rare. By 2 years, infants engage in “semi-supervised learning” (SSL), integrating labeled and unlabeled exemplars to learn categories. However, everyday learning contexts pose substantial challenges for infants' SSL. Here, two studies (n = 74, 51% female, 62% non-Hispanic White, 18% multiracial, 8% Asian, 6% Black, Mage = 27.3 months, collected 2018–2020) implemented a familiarization-novelty preference paradigm assessing 2-year-olds' SSL when (i) exemplars from the target category are interspersed with other objects (Study 1, d =.67) and (ii) multiple categories are learned simultaneously (Study 2, d =.74). The findings indicate 2-year-olds' SSL is robust enough to support object categorization despite substantial challenges posed by everyday learning contexts.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1903-1911 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Child development |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2022 |
Funding
We thank the members of the Infant & Child Development Center, particularly Murielle Standley, Miriam Novack, and Patrick Lin, as well as the parents and infants who participated. The research reported here was supported by the National Science Foundation through the graduate research fellowship DGE‐1324585 and by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01HD083310 to SW and a National Research Service Award F32HD103448‐01 to AL. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health