INFANTS' EMERGING OBJECT CATEGORIES: ATTENTION TO LABELS

描述：理解对象分类的新兴知识是一个 认知发展和概念组织的关键方面。如何 类别知识在婴儿和幼儿中发展？最近的研究表明 到9个月大的时候，婴儿的类别学习是由以下因素促进的： 话本项目所述的调查领域将这些调查结果扩展到 两个方向。一个目的是检验婴儿易患 通过检查婴儿对单词的反应，将语言标签与类别联系起来 与其他与物体配对的声音相比。幼儿 对物体和标签（或其他声音）的注意力在一个类别中进行检查 学习任务，测量（a）传统的行为反应，如 物体探索，作为注意力和偏好的指标，以及（B）心脏 率变化作为注意力反应和调节的指标。这些 拟议的研究集中在7至11个月的发育期。的 另一个目的是开始检查物体之间联系的线索 婴儿环境中提供的类别和语言。拟议 对父母-婴儿与物体的结构化互动的研究旨在 描述父母如何使用语言和其他线索来引导婴儿的注意力 分类关系，重要的是，这些线索如何随着婴儿的成长而变化， 成熟这些拟议的研究跨越了大约6年的发展时期， 24个月。本研究的最终目的是了解 范畴化的基本过程来自于语言的发展， 婴儿期的认知能力，以及成年人如何为这些能力提供支持 新兴能力发现基本认知能力是如何展开的， 获得是我们理解正常，健康发展不可或缺的， 生命的最初几年。此外，这种发展研究提供了 与年龄相关的正常认知成就的期望，并可用于 提供支持这些能力的建议， 评估非典型或有风险的发展。

DESCRIPTION: Understanding the emerging knowledge of object categorization is a key aspect of cognitive development and conceptual organization. How does category knowledge develop in infants and toddlers? Recent research suggests that, by the age of nine months, infants' category learning is facilitated by words. The areas of inquiry described in this project extend these findings in two directions. One aim is to test the idea that infants are predisposed to connect language labels to categories by examining how infants respond to words paired with objects compared to other sounds paired with objects. Infants' attention to objects and labels (or other sounds) is examined in a category learning task that measures (a) traditional behavioral responses, such as object exploration, as indicators of attention and preference and (b) heart rate change as an indicator of attentional reactivity and regulation. These proposed studies focus on the developmental period between 7 to 11 months. The other aim is to begin to examine the cues for the connections between object categories and language provided in the infant's environment. The proposed studies of parent-infant structured interactions with objects are designed to describe how parents use language and other cues to direct infants' attention to category relations and, importantly, how those cues change as the infants mature. These proposed studies span the developmental period between about 6 and 24 months. The ultimate objectives of this research are to understand how the fundamental processes of categorization emerge from developing language and cognitive competencies in infancy, and how adults provide support for these emerging abilities. Discovering how basic cognitive abilities unfold and are acquired is integral to our understanding of normal, healthy development in the first few years of life. In addition, such developmental studies provide age-related expectations for normal cognitive accomplishments and may be used both to provide recommendations for supporting such competences and to inform assessment of atypical or at-risk development.