Infants' ability to consult the speaker for clues to word reference

TLDR

The study investigates whether infants actively seek speaker cues to determine the referent of a spoken label. Forty‑eight infants across three age ranges were presented with novel labels for unfamiliar objects in either follow‑in or discrepant labelling contexts, after which half received comprehension questions and the other half preference questions to assess understanding. Results show that younger infants (1;2–1;3) could not reliably form word‑object associations even with follow‑in labelling, whereas older infants (1;6–1;7) successfully identified the correct referent during discrepant labelling, indicating rapid development of word‑referent mapping between 1;2 and 1;7. Example comprehension and preference questions used were “Where's the peri?” and “Where's the one you like?”.

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research examines whether infants actively seek information from a speaker regarding the referent of the speaker's utterance. Forty-eight infants (in three age groups: 1;2–1;3, 1;4–1;5, and 1;6–1;7) heard novel labels for novel objects in two situations: follow-in labelling (the experimenter looked at and labelled the toy of the infant's focus) vs. discrepant labelling (the experimenter looked at and labelled a different toy than that of the infant's focus). Subsequently, half of the infants were asked comprehension questions (e.g. ‘Where's the peri ?’). The other half were asked preference questions (e.g. ‘Where's the one you like?’), to ensure that their comprehension performance was not merely the result of preferential responding. The comprehension results revealed developmental change in both ( a ) infants' ability to establish new word-object mappings (infants aged 1;2–1;3 failed to establish stable word-object links even in follow-in labelling), and ( b ) infants' ability to pinpoint the correct referent during discrepant labelling (only infants aged 1;6–1;7 succeeded). Thus the period between 1;2 and 1;7 represents a time of change in infants' ability to establish new word-object mappings: infants are becoming increasingly adept at acquiring new labels under minimal learning conditions.