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Bohn M, Le KN, Peloquin B, Köymen B, Frank MC. Children's interpretation of ambiguous pronouns based on prior discourse. Dev Sci 2020; 24:e13049. [PMID: 33064923 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2020] [Revised: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 10/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In conversation, individual utterances are almost always ambiguous, with this ambiguity resolved by context and discourse history (common ground). One important cue for disambiguation is the topic under discussion with a particular partner (e.g., "want to pick?" means something different in a conversation with a bluegrass musician vs. with a book club partner). Here, we investigated 2- to 5-year-old American English-speaking children's (N = 131) reliance on conversational topics with specific partners to interpret ambiguous or novel words. In a tablet-based game, children heard a speaker consistently refer to objects from a category without mentioning the category itself. In Study 1, 3- and 4-year-olds interpreted the ambiguous pronoun "it" as referring to another member of the same category. In Study 2, only 4-year-olds interpreted the pronoun as referring to the implied category when talking to the same speaker but not when talking to a new speaker. Thus, children's conception of what constitutes common ground in discourse develops substantially between ages 2 and 5.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Bohn
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.,Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Khuyen Nha Le
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Bahar Köymen
- School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Michael C Frank
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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Althaus N, Gliozzi V, Mayor J, Plunkett K. Infant categorization as a dynamic process linked to memory. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2020; 7:200328. [PMID: 33204445 PMCID: PMC7657915 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.200328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Recency effects are well documented in the adult and infant literature: recognition and recall memory are better for recently occurring events. We explore recency effects in infant categorization, which does not merely involve memory for individual items, but the formation of abstract category representations. We present a computational model of infant categorization that simulates category learning in 10-month-olds. The model predicts that recency effects outweigh previously reported order effects for the same stimuli. According to the model, infant behaviour at test should depend mainly on the identity of the most recent training item. We evaluate these predictions in a series of experiments with 10-month-old infants. Our results show that infant behaviour confirms the model's prediction. In particular, at test infants exhibited a preference for a category outlier over the category average only if the final training item had been close to the average, rather than distant from it. Our results are consistent with a view of categorization as a highly dynamic process where the end result of category learning is not the overall average of all stimuli encountered, but rather a fluid representation that moves depending on moment-to-moment novelty. We argue that this is a desirable property of a flexible cognitive system that adapts rapidly to different contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadja Althaus
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Valentina Gliozzi
- Center for Logic, Language, and Cognition, Department of Computer Science, University of Torino, C.so Svizzera 185, 10149 Torino, Italy
| | - Julien Mayor
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1094, Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway
| | - Kim Plunkett
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK
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Animacy cues facilitate 10-month-olds' categorization of novel objects with similar insides. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0207800. [PMID: 30475872 PMCID: PMC6261258 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
In this experiment, we examined whether sensitivity to the relevance of object insides for the categorization of animate objects is in place around 10 months of age. Using an object examining paradigm, 10-month-old infants' (N = 58) were familiarized to novel objects with varying outward appearances but shared insides in one of three groups: No cues, Eyes, and Cue control. During test trials, infants were presented with a novel in-category test object followed by an out-of-category test object. When objects were presented with animacy cues (i.e., Eyes), infants categorized the objects together. In contrast, when objects were presented without any added cues or when they were presented with a shared perceptual marker (Cue control, i.e., plastic spoons placed on top of the objects), infants showed no evidence of categorization. These results indicate that by 10 months of age, eyes signal to infants that objects share some kind of uniting commonality that may not be obvious or readily perceptually available.
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White RC, Dumbalska T, Duta MD, Nation K. "17" is odd and "seventeen" is even: Meaning and physical form in stimulus-parity synaesthesia. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2018; 71:2005-2021. [PMID: 30117381 DOI: 10.1177/1747021817738712] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
For individuals with stimulus-parity synaesthesia, eliciting stimuli (e.g., shapes, numbers, letters, colours) trigger a compelling feeling of oddness or evenness. Given that (a) many inducers are conceptual and (b) parity is itself a conceptual property, one questions whether stimulus-parity synaesthesia will be a categorically higher subtype, such that the conceptual properties of stimuli will be crucial in determining parity. We explore this question as it applies to Synaesthete R, one of only two stimulus-parity synaesthetes known to the contemporary literature. In Experiments 1 and 2, we examine whether parity is tied to concepts or percepts, asking, for example, whether a rectangle is even regardless of whether it is presented as an image or a word. Our results indicate that the parity of shapes (words and images), numbers (words, digits, and Roman numerals), and letters (lowercase and uppercase) differs according to the stimulus format, supporting a perceptual explanation. In Experiment 3, we examine the parity of colour stimuli, showing a systematic relationship between the measurable physical properties of hue, saturation, and lightness and synaesthetic parity. Despite the conceptual nature of inducers and concurrents, for Synaesthete R, stimulus-parity synaesthesia is a lower subtype; perceptual properties of stimuli determine parity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebekah C White
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Mihaela D Duta
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Kate Nation
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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Rakison DH, Yermolayeva Y. Infant categorization. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2015; 1:894-905. [PMID: 26271785 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.81] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
In this article, we review the principal findings on infant categorization from the last 30 years. The review focuses on behaviorally based experiments with visual preference, habituation, object examining, sequential touching, and inductive generalization procedures. We propose that although this research has helped to elucidate the 'what' and 'when' of infant categorization, it has failed to clarify the mechanisms that underpin this behavior and the development of concepts. We outline a number of reasons for why the field has failed in this regard, most notably because of the context-specific nature of infant categorization and a lack of ground rules in interpreting data. We conclude by suggesting that one remedy for this issue is for infant categorization researchers to adopt more of an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating imaging and computational methods into their current methodological arsenal. WIREs Cogn Sci 2010 1 894-905 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
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Affiliation(s)
- David H Rakison
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Yevdokiya Yermolayeva
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lynn S. Liben
- Department of Psychology; The Pennsylvania State University
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Categorization of Young Children by Object Categorical Hierarchy. ADONGHAKOEJI 2012. [DOI: 10.5723/kjcs.2012.33.5.19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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Bornstein MH, Arterberry ME. The development of object categorization in young children: hierarchical inclusiveness, age, perceptual attribute, and group versus individual analyses. Dev Psychol 2010; 46:350-65. [PMID: 20210495 PMCID: PMC2856652 DOI: 10.1037/a0018411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Multiple levels of category inclusiveness in 4 object domains (animals, vehicles, fruit, and furniture) were examined using a sequential touching procedure and assessed in both individual and group analyses in eighty 12-, 18-, 24-, and 30-month-olds. The roles of stimulus discriminability and child motor development, fatigue, and actions were also investigated. More inclusive levels of categorization systematically emerged before less inclusive levels, and a consistent advantage for categorizing high versus low perceptual contrasts was found. Group and individual analyses generally converged, but individual analyses added information about child categorization over group analyses. The development of object categorization in young children is discussed in light of efficiency of processing and similarity-differentiation theories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc H Bornstein
- Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Rockledge 1, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7971, Bethesda MD 20892-7971, USA.
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Oakes LM, Kovack-Lesh KA, Horst JS. Two are better than one: comparison influences infants' visual recognition memory. J Exp Child Psychol 2009; 104:124-31. [PMID: 18951555 PMCID: PMC2692647 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2008.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2008] [Revised: 09/04/2008] [Accepted: 09/08/2008] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Despite a large literature on infants' memory for visually presented stimuli, the processes underlying visual memory are not well understood. Two studies with 4-month-olds (N=60) examined the effects of providing opportunities for comparison of items on infants' memory for those items. Experiment 1 revealed that 4-month-olds failed to show evidence of memory for an item presented during familiarization in a standard task (i.e., when only one item was presented during familiarization). In Experiment 2, infants showed robust memory for one of two different items presented during familiarization. Thus, infants' memory for the distinctive features of individual items was enhanced when they could compare items.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M Oakes
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, 267 Cousteau P1, Davis, CA 95618, USA.
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11
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Catégoriser à 13 et 16 mois : comparaison de deux méthodes. ANNEE PSYCHOLOGIQUE 2009. [DOI: 10.4074/s0003503309001018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Kalénine S, Peyrin C, Pichat C, Segebarth C, Bonthoux F, Baciu M. The sensory-motor specificity of taxonomic and thematic conceptual relations: A behavioral and fMRI study. Neuroimage 2009; 44:1152-62. [PMID: 18977304 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.09.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 110] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2008] [Revised: 08/26/2008] [Accepted: 09/29/2008] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
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Kovack-Lesh KA, Horst JS, Oakes LM. The Cat is out of the Bag: The Joint Influence of Previous Experience and Looking Behavior on Infant Categorization. INFANCY 2008. [DOI: 10.1080/15250000802189428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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Kovack-Lesh KA, Oakes LM. Hold your horses: how exposure to different items influences infant categorization. J Exp Child Psychol 2007; 98:69-93. [PMID: 17604048 PMCID: PMC2141651 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2007.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2007] [Revised: 05/07/2007] [Accepted: 05/12/2007] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
We investigated how exposure to pairs of different items (as compared with pairs of identical items) influences 10-month-olds' (n=79) categorization of horses versus dogs in an object-examining task. Infants responded to an exclusive category when familiarized with pairs of different items but not when familiarized with pairs of identical items (Experiment 1), even when the frequency of exposure to each item was controlled (Experiment 2). When familiarized with pairs of identical items, infants failed to show evidence of memory for the individual exemplars (Experiment 3). Reducing the retention interval between presentations of different items in the identical pairs condition facilitated infants' recognition of an exclusive categorical distinction (Experiment 4). These results are discussed in terms of how exposure to collections of different items, and how opportunities to compare items, influences infants' categorization.
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Abstract
One hundred 18-month-olds were tested using sequential touching and following 4 different priming contexts using sets of toys that could be simultaneously categorized at either the basic or global level. An exact expression of the expected mean sequence length for arbitrary categories was derived as a function of the number of touches made, and a finite mixture model analytic method was also used to explore individual variability in categorization. Toddlers could categorize flexibly and spontaneously selected the level of categorization as a function of the prior prime. Perceptual Variability emerged as a predictor of the level at which infants subsequently categorized. The infants were also able to classify objects as members of both basic- and global-level categories simultaneously.
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Abstract
Little is known of the neural processes that underlie concept-formation abilities in human infants. We investigated category-learning processes in infants both by using a common behavioral measure and by recording the brain's electrical activity (event-related potentials, or ERPs). ERPs were recorded while 6-month-olds viewed cat images during training, followed by novel cat images interspersed with novel dog images during test. The data indicate that distinct neural signals correspond with learning of a category presented during familiarization, preferential responding to a novel category, and representation of category exemplars at multiple levels of inclusiveness. The results suggest that fundamental components of the neural architecture supporting object categorization are functional within the first half-year of postnatal life, before infants acquire language and young children engage in formal learning of semantic categories. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for models of category learning and development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, 19716, USA.
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Furrer SD, Younger BA. Beyond the distributional input? A developmental investigation of asymmetry in infants' categorization of cats and dogs. Dev Sci 2005; 8:544-50. [PMID: 16246246 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00446.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Two experiments are reported using a visual familiarization categorization procedure. In both experiments, infants were familiarized with sets of stimuli previously shown to contain asymmetric feature distributions that support an asymmetry in young infants' categorization of cats and dogs (i.e. infants' cat category excludes dogs but their dog category includes cats). In Experiment 1, the asymmetry was replicated in 4-month-old infants. In contrast, 10-month-old infants demonstrated exclusive category representations for both cats and dogs. In Experiment 2, an additional group of 10-month-olds demonstrated exclusive representations for both cats and dogs under conditions of very limited within-task category familiarization. Potential mechanisms underlying the shift from an asymmetric to a symmetric pattern of categorization in the first year are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie D Furrer
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081, USA
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Murai C, Kosugi D, Tomonaga M, Tanaka M, Matsuzawa T, Itakura S. Can chimpanzee infants (Pan troglodytes) form categorical representations in the same manner as human infants (Homo sapiens)? Dev Sci 2005; 8:240-54. [PMID: 15819756 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00413.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
We directly compared chimpanzee infants and human infants for categorical representations of three global-like categories (mammals, furniture and vehicles), using the familiarization-novelty preference technique. Neither species received any training during the experiments. We used the time that participants spent looking at the stimulus object while touching it as a measure. During the familiarization phase, participants were presented with four familiarization objects from one of three categories (e.g. mammals). Then, they were tested with a pair of novel objects, one was a familiar-category object and another was a novel-category object (e.g. vehicle) in the test phase. The chimpanzee infants did not show significant habituation, whereas human infants did. However, most important, both species showed significant novelty-preference in the test phase. This indicates that not only human infants, but also chimpanzee infants formed categorical representations of a global-like level. Implications for the shared origins and species-specificity of categorization abilities, and the cognitive operations underlying categorization, are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chizuko Murai
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Japan.
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French RM, Mareschal D, Mermillod M, Quinn PC. The role of bottom-up processing in perceptual categorization by 3- to 4-month-old infants: simulations and data. J Exp Psychol Gen 2004; 133:382-97. [PMID: 15355145 DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.133.3.382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Disentangling bottom-up and top-down processing in adult category learning is notoriously difficult. Studying category learning in infancy provides a simple way of exploring category learning while minimizing the contribution of top-down information. Three- to 4-month-old infants presented with cat or dog images will form a perceptual category representation for cat that excludes dogs and for dog that includes cats. The authors argue that an inclusion relationship in the distribution of features in the images explains the asymmetry. Using computational modeling and behavioral testing, the authors show that the asymmetry can be reversed or removed by using stimulus images that reverse or remove the inclusion relationship. The findings suggest that categorization of nonhuman animal images by young infants is essentially a bottom-up process.
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