Does Human Touch Facilitate Object Categorization in 6-to-9-Month-Old Infants?

Overview

Journal Brain Sci

Publisher MDPI

Date 2020 Dec 9

PMID 33291300

Citations 1

Authors

Girija Kadlaskar

Sandra Waxman

Amanda Seidl

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Infants form object categories in the first months of life. By 3 months and throughout the first year, successful categorization varies as a function of the acoustic information presented in conjunction with category members. Here we ask whether tactile information, delivered in conjunction with category members, also promotes categorization. Six- to 9-month-olds participated in an object categorization task in either a touch-cue or no-cue condition. For infants in the touch-cue condition, familiarization images were accompanied by precisely-timed light touches from their caregivers; infants in the no-cue condition saw the same images but received no touches. Only infants in the touch-cue condition formed categories. This provides the first evidence that touch may play a role in supporting infants' object categorization.

Citing Articles

Learning Through Processing: Toward an Integrated Approach to Early Word Learning.

Meylan S, Bergelson E Annu Rev Linguist. 2022; 8:77-99.

PMID: 35481110 PMC: 9037961. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031220-011146.

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