Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 175, Issue -, Pages 37-47Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.04.015
Keywords
Language; Vision; Object recognition; Visual perception; Language development; Cognitive development
Funding
- National Institute of Child Health and Development
- Portuguese Science Foundation
- EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT [R01HD028675] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
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A large literature shows strong developmental links between early language abilities and later cognitive abilities. We present evidence for one pathway by which language may influence cognition and development: by influencing how visual information is momentarily processed. Children were asked to identify a target in clutter and either saw a visual preview of the target or heard the basic-level name of the target. We hypothesized that the name of the target should activate category-relevant information and, thus, facilitate more rapid detection of the target amid distractors. Children who heard the name of the target before search were more likely to correctly identify the target at faster speeds of response, a result that supports the idea that words lower the threshold for target identification. This finding has significant implication for understanding the source of vocabulary-mediated individual differences in cognitive achievement and, more generally, for the relation between language and thought. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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