TY - JOUR
T1 - Twelve-Month-Old Infants Generalize Novel Signed Labels, but Not Preferences Across Individuals
AU - Novack, Miriam A.
AU - Henderson, Annette M.E.
AU - Woodward, Amanda L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research leading to these results has received funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, project number: P27715), the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 312284.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2014/10/2
Y1 - 2014/10/2
N2 - By the end of the 1st year, infants expect spoken labels to be extended across individuals and thus seem to understand words as shared conventional forms. However, it is unknown whether infants' willingness to extend labels across individuals is constrained to familiar forms, such as spoken words, or whether infants can identify a broader range of symbols as potential conventions. The present study tested whether 12-month-old infants will extend a novel sign label to a new person. Results indicate that 12-month-olds expect signed object–label relations to extend across agents but restrict object preferences to individuals. The results suggest that infants' expectations about conventional behaviors and linguistic forms are likely broad at 12 months. The implications of these findings for infants' early conceptions of conventional behaviors as well as our understanding of the initial state of the learner are considered.
AB - By the end of the 1st year, infants expect spoken labels to be extended across individuals and thus seem to understand words as shared conventional forms. However, it is unknown whether infants' willingness to extend labels across individuals is constrained to familiar forms, such as spoken words, or whether infants can identify a broader range of symbols as potential conventions. The present study tested whether 12-month-old infants will extend a novel sign label to a new person. Results indicate that 12-month-olds expect signed object–label relations to extend across agents but restrict object preferences to individuals. The results suggest that infants' expectations about conventional behaviors and linguistic forms are likely broad at 12 months. The implications of these findings for infants' early conceptions of conventional behaviors as well as our understanding of the initial state of the learner are considered.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84926093675&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84926093675&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15248372.2013.782460
DO - 10.1080/15248372.2013.782460
M3 - Article
C2 - 25364304
AN - SCOPUS:84926093675
SN - 1524-8372
VL - 15
SP - 539
EP - 550
JO - Journal of Cognition and Development
JF - Journal of Cognition and Development
IS - 4
ER -
