Developing Object Concepts in Infancy (Paperback)

David H. Rakison

ISBN 10: 1405187662 / ISBN 13: 9781405187664

Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Hoboken, 2008

About this Item

Paperback. We present a domain-general framework called constrained attentional associative learning to provide a developmental account for how and when infants form concepts for animates and inanimates that encapsulate not only their surface appearance but also their movement characteristics. Six simulations with the same general-purpose architecture implement the features of the theory to model infant behavior in learning about objects motion trajectory, their causal role, their onset of motion, and the initial mapping between a label and a moving object. Behavioral experiments with infants tested novel hypotheses generated by the model, showing that verbal labels initially may be associated with specific features rather than overall shape. Implications of the framework and model are discussed in relation to the mechanisms of early learning, the development of the animateinanimate distinction, and the nature of development in the first years of life. We present a domain-general framework called constrained attentional associative learning to provide a developmental account for how and when infants form concepts for animates and inanimates that encapsulate not only their surface appearance but also their movement characteristics. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781405187664

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Developing Object Concepts in Infancy (Paperback)
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Hoboken
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1405187662
• ISBN 13: 9781405187664
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

We present a domain-general framework called constrained attentional associative learning to provide a developmental account for how and when infants form concepts for animates and inanimates that encapsulate not only their surface appearance but also their movement characteristics. Six simulations with the same general-purpose architecture implement the features of the theory to model infant behavior in learning about objects’ motion trajectory, their causal role, their onset of motion, and the initial mapping between a label and a moving object. Behavioral experiments with infants tested novel hypotheses generated by the model, showing that verbal labels initially may be associated with specific features rather than overall shape. Implications of the framework and model are discussed in relation to the mechanisms of early learning, the development of the animate–inanimate distinction, and the nature of development in the first years of life.

About the Author

David H. Rakison (D.Phil., University of Sussex, 1997) is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Carnegie Mellon University. His research has focused on the development of categorization and induction in first years of life. In particular, he has studied when and how infants form representations for the various properties of animates and inanimates in the world. He has edited two books on early category and concept development.

Gary Lupyan is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. His main interest is in the effects of language on categorization, memory, and attention.