Ph. Smith et al., Infants' responses to objects representing levels of word knowledge and categorical information, INFANT BEH, 22(4), 1999, pp. 511-526
The effects of differing levels of word knowledge on infants' sequential to
uching behaviors were investigated in two studies. In both, parent report w
as used to assess three levels of word knowledge: known, frontier, and unkn
own. In the first study, 14-month-old infants sequentially touched objects
consistent with parents' reports of their word knowledge. In the second stu
dy, 20-month-old infants sequentially touched objects by both conceptual ca
tegory and reported level of word knowledge. It appears that even infants,
like adults, can make distinctions among objects on the basis of their know
ledge about the objects' labels.