Elsevier

Cognitive Development

Volume 3, Issue 3, July 1988, Pages 299-321
Cognitive Development

The importance of shape in early lexical learning

https://doi.org/10.1016/0885-2014(88)90014-7Get rights and content

Abstract

We ask if certain dimensions of perceptual similarity are weighted more heavily than others in determining word extension. The specific dimensions examined were shape, size, and texture. In four experiments, subjects were asked either to extend a novel count noun to new instances or, in a nonword classification task, to put together objects that go together. The subjects were 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and adults. The results of all four experiments indicate that 2- and 3-year-olds and adults all weight shape more heavily than they do size or texture. This observed emphasis on shape, however, depends on the age of the subject and the task. First, there is a developmental trend. The shape bias increases in strength and generality from 2 to 3 years of age and more markedly from early childhood to adulthood. Second, in young children, the shape bias is much stronger in word extension than in nonword classification tasks. These results suggest that the development of the shape bias originates in language learning—it reflects a fact about language—and does not stem from general perceptual processes.

References (34)

  • E.V. Clark

    What's in a word? On the child's acquisition of semantics in his first language

  • E.V. Clark et al.

    Compound nouns and category structure in young children

    Child Development

    (1985)
  • J. Fodor

    Representations

    (1981)
  • S. Gelman et al.

    Categories and induction in young children

    Cognition

    (1986)
  • S. Gelman et al.

    How two-year-old children interpret proper and common names for unfamiliar objects

    Child Development

    (1984)
  • Gentner, D. (in press). The mechanisms of analogical reasoning. In S. Voniadou and A. Ortony. Similarity and analogy....
  • D. Gentner

    What looks like a jiggy but acts like a zimbo? A study of early word meaning using artificial objects

    Papers and Reports on Child Language Development

    (1978)
  • Cited by (887)

    • For human-like models, train on human-like tasks

      2023, Behavioral and Brain Sciences
    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This work was supported by PHS grants ROI HD499 and K04HD589 to Linda Smith, by a Spencer Foundation Grant to Barbara Landau, and by a grant from the National Foundation—March of Dimes—to Lila Gleitman and Barbara Landau.

    1

    We wish to thank Lila Gleitman for her comments on an earlier draft. Thanks are also due to Rachel Dresner (Columbia University), Salma Abugidieri, and Carol McCord (Indiana University) for data collection, and to the parents, teachers, and children at the following nursery schools: in New York, Columbia Greenhouse; in Bloomington, Penny Lane, Cherry Hill, and the Children's Learning Center.

    View full text