Infants discriminate manners and paths in non-linguistic dynamic events

Cognition. 2008 Sep;108(3):825-30. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.04.009. Epub 2008 Jul 2.

Abstract

Do 14- to 17-month-olds notice the paths and manners of motion events? English- and Spanish-learning infants were habituated to an animated motion event including a manner (e.g., spinning) and a path (e.g., over). They were then tested on four types of events that changed either the manner, the path, both, or neither component. Both English- and Spanish-learning infants attended to changes of manner and changes of path. Thus, infants from two different language communities proved sensitive to components of events that undergird relational term learning.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Aptitude
  • Attention*
  • Cross-Cultural Comparison
  • Discrimination Learning*
  • Female
  • Generalization, Psychological
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Language Development*
  • Male
  • Mexico
  • Motion Perception*
  • Orientation*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Psychology, Child*
  • Semantics
  • United States