Adults, preschool children, and nonhuman primates detect and categorize food objects according to substance information, conveyed primarily by color and texture. In contrast, they perceive and categorize artifacts primarily by shape and rigidity. The present experiments investigated the origins of this distinction. Using a looking time procedure,…

Two experiments compared 6-month-olds' numerosity discrimination performance on both large numbers and small numbers with both total filled area and total contour length controlled. Results showed that infants succeeded in discriminating 4 from 8 elements, but failed to discriminate 2 from 4 elements, providing evidence for the existence of two…

Three experiments assessed the extent to which statistical learning generates novel word-like units, rather than probabilistically-related strings of sounds. Found that 8-month-olds' listening preferences were affected by the context (English versus nonsense) in which items from the familiarization phase were embedded during testing. Confirmed…

Five experiments used a categorization habituation-of-looking paradigm to investigate infants' categorization of animals and vehicles based on static versus dynamic attributes of stimuli (color images versus dynamic point-light displays). Findings showed that 6-month-olds categorize animals and vehicles based on static and dynamic information, and…

Two experiments examined memory of 7-month-olds after 2-week retention interval for passages of two Mozart movements heard daily for 2 weeks. Results suggested that the infants retained familiarized music in long-term memory and that their listening preferences were affected by the extent to which familiar passages were removed from the musical…

The ''ba, ba, ba'' sound universal to babies' babbling around 7 months captures scientific attention because it provides insights into the mechanisms underlying language acquisition and vestiges of its evolutionary origins. Yet the prevailing mystery is what is the biological basis of babbling, with one hypothesis being that it is a non-linguistic…