Maturation constrains the effect of exposure in linking language and thought: evidence from healthy preterm infants

The link between non-human primate vocalizations and cognition is not constrained by maturation alone: Evidence from healthy preterm infants

To acquire language, infants must not only identify the signals of their language(s), but also discover how these signals are connected to meaning. By 3 months of age, infants' native language, non-native languages, and vocalizations of non-human primates support infants' formation of object categories-a building block of cognition. But by 6 months, only the native language exerts this cognitive advantage. Prior work with preterm infants indicates that maturation constrains this developing link between the native language and cognition. Here, we assess whether maturation exerts similar constraints on the influence of non-human primate vocalizations on infant categorization. Cross-sectional growth curve analyses of new data from preterm infants and extant data from fullterm infants indicate that developmental tuning of this signal's influence on categorization is best predicted by infants' chronological age, and not gestational status. This evidence, together with prior work, suggests that as infants tune the initially broad set of signals that support early cognition, they are guided by two independent processes: maturation constrains the expression of a link between their native language and cognition, while the influence of non-linguistic signals are guided by other factors, such as postnatal age and experience.

What risk factors for Developmental Language Disorder can tell us about the neurobiological mechanisms of language development

Language is a complex multidimensional cognitive system that is connected to many neurocognitive capacities. The development of language is therefore strongly intertwined with the development of these capacities and their neurobiological substrates. Consequently, language problems, for example those of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), are explained by a variety of etiological pathways and each of these pathways will be associated with specific risk factors. In this review, we attempt to link previously described factors that may interfere with language development to putative underlying neurobiological mechanisms of language development, hoping to uncover openings for future therapeutical approaches or interventions that can help children to optimally develop their language skills.

Labels and object categorization in six- and nine-month-olds: tracking labels across varying carrier phrases

Language shapes object categorization in infants. This starts as a general enhanced attentional effect of language, which narrows to a specific link between labels and categories by twelve months. The current experiments examined this narrowing effect by investigating when infants track a consistent label across varied input. Six-month-old infants (N = 48) were familiarized to category exemplars, each presented with the exact same labeling phrase or the same label in different phrases. Evidence of object categorization at test was only found with the same phrase, suggesting that infants were not tracking the label's consistency, but rather that of the entire input. Nine-month-olds (N = 24) did show evidence of categorization across the varied phrases, suggesting that they were tracking the consistent label across the varied input.

How Children Learn From Others: An Analysis of Selective Word Learning

One way children are remarkable learners is that they learn from others. Critically, children are selective when assessing from whom to learn, particularly in the domain of word learning. We conducted an analysis of children's selective word learning, reviewing 63 papers on 6,525 participants. Children's ability to engage in selective word learning appeared to be present in the youngest samples surveyed. Their more metacognitive understanding that epistemic competence indicates reliability or that others are good sources of knowledge has more of a developmental trajectory. We also found that various methodological factors used to assess children influence performance. We conclude with a synthesis of theoretical accounts of how children learn from others.

Infants' advances in speech perception shape their earliest links between language and cognition

The power of human language derives not only from the precision of its signal or the complexity of its grammar, but also from its links to cognition. Infants as young as 3 months have begun to link language and core cognitive capacities. At 3 and 4 months, this link is not exclusive to human language: listening to vocalizations of nonhuman primates also supports infant cognition. By 6 months, infants have tuned this link to human speech alone. Here we provide evidence that infants' increasing precision in speech perception shapes which signals they will link to cognition. Infants listening to German, a nonnative language that shares key rhythmic and prosodic properties with their own native language (English), successfully formed object categories. In contrast, those listening to Cantonese, a language that differs considerably in these suprasegmental properties, failed. This provides the first evidence that infants' increasingly precise perceptual tuning to the sounds of their native language sets constraints on the range of human languages they will link to cognition: infants begin to specify which human languages they will link to core cognitive capacities even before they sever the link between nonhuman primate vocalizations and cognition.

Linking Language and Cognition in Infancy

Human language, a signature of our species, derives its power from its links to human cognition. For centuries, scholars have been captivated by this link between language and cognition. In this article, we shift this focus. Adopting a developmental lens, we review recent evidence that sheds light on the origin and developmental unfolding of the link between language and cognition in the first year of life. This evidence, which reveals the joint contributions of infants' innate capacities and their sensitivity to experience, highlights how a precocious link between language and cognition advances infants beyond their initial perceptual and conceptual capacities. The evidence also identifies the conceptual advantages this link brings to human infants. By tracing the emergence of a language-cognition link in infancy, this article reveals a dynamic developmental cascade in infants' first year, with each developmental advance providing a foundation for subsequent advances.